


Iggy's Bizarre Adventures

by MorenoX25



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, RWBY, Young Justice (Cartoon), ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Comedy, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Fantasy, Gen, Humor, Multiple Crossovers, Science Fiction, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 22:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8178812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorenoX25/pseuds/MorenoX25
Summary: Iggy.Dog.Boston Terrier.Stand User.Stardust Crusader.His journey with the Joestar group may had come to an end, but it wasn't the end of this dog's many Bizarre Adventures. A collection of X-over stories feat. Iggy! Because he seriously needs more love.





	1. Prologue

Iggy was a dog. A Boston Terrier to be exact. But he wasn't any regular canine.

No. Iggy was special.

Unlike any regular dog, Iggy was perfectly capable of understanding human speech, and had a cognitive level that was equal and sometimes even surpassed those of a human. It was because of this unnatural intelligence that the small dog started to believe himself to be above everyone else of his kind and even humans.

Because of his intelligence, or maybe the reason behind it, Iggy developed what was known by others as a Stand; a supernatural ability unique to a mere few. In the case of this particular Boston Terrier, his Stand granted him the ability to control and manipulate dirt and sand as he wished it.

No one knows how or when the terrier was able to develop a Stand, but with it Iggy escaped from home took on the streets of New York.

Despite his size and the harsh environment, the homeless dog managed to thrive in the streets, fighting against other bigger street mutts. Slowly but surely, Iggy earned the rank of top dog, revered by all street animals.

Of course, his ascension to King of all Animals, was noticed by the local authorities of the Animal Control Center, which sent several experienced dog catchers for the mutt. But even New York's finest couldn't keep up with Iggy and his incredible ability that made a fool of any human that opposed him.

That is why Iggy named his Stand: The Fool.

Unfortunately, his life as top dog and licentiousness came to an end when two strange individuals with the same type of powers as him, Stand Users, came on to him to try and capture them. Despite their fight of surely epic proportions, Iggy ended up as the unfortunate loser and was caged to be observed and studied by the Speedwagon Foundation.

Lucky for him, he was treated rather well by the staff of the Foundation, because they knew he could try and break out at any moment. That is why they always indulged him in his banal desires; like constantly giving him his favorite treat to chew on: Coffee-flavored Gum.

Not too long after that, Iggy's life turned upside down again. This time he was forced to travel all the way to Egypt to join a group, which included the two men that captured him back in New York, and three others to find and fight a Vampire named Dio.

All that Iggy ever wanted was a carefree life, to live comfortably and fall in love with a hot bitch. Not to fight dangerous opponents for no good reason, especially when he gained nothing out of it.

Unfortunately, all changed when Iggy fought one of his harshest battles yet, against a bastard bird stand user, named Pet Shop. At the end of the fight against the murderous hawk, Iggy had lost his front paw, a lot of blood, and the cherry in top for the terrible sundae of a day was nearly drowning. Against all odds, he survived and fueled with a sense of rightful indignation, he went back to the group of crusaders he Guided them to the mansion in which the vampire Dio was hiding.

The Crusaders went inside the mansion hoping to put a stop to the bastard Vampire, but along the way there were more dangerous opponents waiting for them to stop them before reaching Dio.

Iggy would never reach Dio, because he ended up dying against a Stand User named Vanilla Ice, but at least he managed to prove the bastard wrong. He DID have resolve; he DID posses a proud soul. Because Stands are representations of one's souls, and Iggy's Stand, his soul, moved on its own to save the life of his companion Jean Pierre Polnareff in exchange of his own.

Iggy lived a short life, and despite living it looking down on others, acting stubborn and refusing to join or being part of a group; he sacrificed his life for a comrade and died a proud death.

This was the end of Iggy's life.

But unknown to him, this wasn't the end of his Bizarre Adventure.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe there aren't any good stories about Iggy in this site.
> 
> So I decided to correct this oversight so I wrote this prologue to catch up or remind you who Iggy is.
> 
> Next chapters will be just a compendium of one-shot X-over stories featuring Iggy in different settings. Because a dog that controls sand is a welcome addition in any story.
> 
> That being said: I'm open to suggestions as to where put Iggy in. Fell free to send me your ideas. And if you like anything you read here, then why not write a story based on it. Because Iggy needs more love and we need more Bizarre Stories.


	2. Gravity Falls

Iggy found himself in a very bizarre situation. He was alive. HE WAS ALIVE!

But he shouldn't be. He died. Or at least he remembered he did. He used his Stand, The Fool, to save the life of Polnareff from being consumed by the void created by Vanilla Ice's stand Cream; he had used the last of his strength after being kicked repeatedly which broke many of his bones and pierced one of his lungs.

So by all intends and purposes he should be dead.

Except he was not.

In fact he was perfectly fine! He even had the front paw he had lost in his fight against the birdbrain bastard Pet Shop.

So what now?

After recovering from the shock of being alive, Iggy wondered what to do next? Looking at his surroundings he could tell he was no longer in Egypt if the rest of the Crusaders; instead he was in some sort of forest surrounded by trees he didn't recognized since he had lived mostly on the streets of New York.

In other words, he was lost god-knows-where in the middle of some forest with no way to find or contact the Crusaders or the Speedwagon Foundation. He was all on his own.

Despite the utter confusion of his "resurrection" and the frustration of being lost, Iggy quickly tried to get over it. Maybe, just maybe, this was a blessing in disguise. He could try and get back to his dream of living a comfortable and carefree life.

Sure he would miss the ragtag group of companions and hoped that they managed to kick Dio's ass for him and Abdul. But now it was time for him to live his life like he wanted.

But first he needed to get out of these woods.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Iggy used his nose to try and find the scent of a settlement nearby. Maybe he could find a house from where to steal food since he was quite hungry. It didn't take long for him to finally get a whiff of a well-known smell: a human.

And where humans are, so is food.

Iggy quickly dashed towards the origin of the smell and soon after he found what the human that the scent belonged to. It was a human kid. It was a boy with messy short hair underneath a cap. He was wearing a navy blue hooded vest and shorts.

The dog figured that maybe this kid if this kid liked dogs, maybe he could get food out of him and if that wasn't the case he could still follow him to where he lived and found something to eat there.

Iggy approached the boy slowly, who was currently engrossed in a book of all things, thinking about how to act to get something out of him. Once he was near enough, Iggy barked softly not wanting to scare the kid off.

Startled by the sudden sound the boy jumped slightly as he put the book away to check for the source of the sudden noise. "What was that?" the boy asked out-loud before his gaze fell upon the Boston terrier. "Oh it was just you."

Iggy thought to himself. 'Of _course it was me! Who else could have been you blockhead_.'Despite his annoyance towards the low intelligence of humans, Iggy decided to play it safe and act "friendly."

"Wow there!" The boy exclaimed as the dog barked happily and wagged his tail while jumping at him. "Where did you come from little guy?" He asked as he petted the dog. "Are you lost of something?" but after taking a good look at it he noticed its lack of a collar. "Are you all on your own?"

' _Why are you asking me? I'm a dog! Is not like a can answer you dolt!_ ' Despite his thoughts Iggy moaned to earn some sympathy from the kid.

Then from behind a log came the unexpected shout from another human kid "HALO! What'cha doing there?!"

"Ah!" Well, unexpected for the boy cause Iggy had noticed the smell of the second human coming around for some time now. But since the second kid, a girl, had the same types of smells as the boy, the dog realized these two were related to each other.

"Aww! It's a doggy!" Unlike the boy, who was cautious in his approach to the dog, the girl jumped at it and started it petting it very excitedly. Iggy was this close to say screw it all and proceed to chew on the girl's hair and fart on her face.

"Mabel! You're petting him too hard!" The boy said noticing the annoyed looked on the dog's face. "He doesn't like it."

Fortunately for the girl, she was smart enough to heed her brother's words, otherwise Iggy would've snapped. "Hey Dipper! Can we keep it? Can we?"

"I don't know…" Dipper, as Iggy now recognized him, said with hesitation. "I don't think Grunkle Stan would allow us to keep a pet."

"Come on, bro-bro! He loves us! Of course he's gonna let us!" Mabel responded without any doubt of her claims. "Besides he let Gompers around the shack."

"Gompers?"

"You know, the goat that tried to eat my sweater."

"You already named him?" That was a rhetorical question. Of course she'd already named the goat; she was Mabel after all.

"Ooh! What should we name this doggy?" She asked excitedly, she had dozens of names already in mind.

"I'll think of one. That is if we get to keep it." Otherwise what was the point? Dipper then looked at the black and white dog and asked him. "What do you say boy? Wanna come home with us?"

" _I'm just going for the food."_ Iggy barked knowing they wouldn't understand a word. And if the food sucked then he would high-tail out of there and look for a better place to mooch off.

"I'll take that as a yes." Dipper nodded and the three of them walked out of the woods and return home.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

The kid's home looked like a dumb, and thanks to his incredible nose it smelled like one too. Their so called house was a place called the Mystery Shack and was filled with all sort of strange and bizarre "attractions" that made no sense to the dog. Had it not being for the fact that the girl, Mabel, had giving him lots of food, he would've bailed right away.

Of course, the adult in charge of the kids, an old man they called Grunkle Stan, made a fuss about bringing in strays and wasting money by giving Iggy some food. But after Mabel managed to talk the old man down he was allowed to stay only if he didn't make a mess inside the house. Despite being allowed to stay, that act alone wasn't enough to endear the old man to Iggy, who planned to leave a surprise in the guy's hat if he ever dared to cross him again.

So now, Iggy was laying down on the carpet in front of the TV, currently off, inside the living room where the two kids were talking about the red book he had seen in Dipper's hand earlier that day. Iggy yawned feeling somewhat sleepy after getting his fill of food, not really paying attention to whatever the kids were saying.

The dog was prepared to take a nap until the sound of a door bell ringing made his ears twitch.

"Who's that?" Dipper wondered out-loud. He had been in the middle of his explanation about his findings in the old journal he had found in a secret compartment in the woods.

"Well, time to spill the beans." Mabel answered as she knocked a can of beans that where on top of what looked like a dinosaur skull that was next to the chair for some reason. "Whoop. Beans." She giggled at her own little joke before continuing. "This girl's got a date! Woot woot!" she announced loudly while flailing her arms around.

 _'_ _Does this girl have to be so loud all the time?'_ Iggy thought to himself. He was trying to take a nap for goodness sake! Thankfully said girl ran out of the room and the dog could have a moment of peace and quiet. Yet not a few seconds after the loud girl went away, the old man came walking by.

"Be sure to give that dog a bath. I don't want the smell of dirty mutt all over the house." Stan said looking at the dog who was giving him the stink eye.

"Sure Grunkle Stan." Dipper said as he put away the journal not wanting Stan to know about it.

Meanwhile, Iggy grimaced. Just for that, the old man was going to get a little surprise on his hat.

"Hey, family! Say hello to my new boyfriend!" Mabel came back announcing loudly the arrival of said boyfriend.

"'Sup?" A hoodie wearing teen said as he walked in.

"Iggy didn't need his extraordinary intelligence or his Stand power to figure out there was something very wrong with this new arrival. For starters, he didn't smelled human at all. Not to mention, there was five different non-human smells coming from him/they.

Whatever it was, it didn't look or even smell dangerous so it was none of Iggy's business.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

The next day, Iggy despite his plans to run off in search of a city, was compelled to stay around the so called Mystery Shack. For once, the kids fed him human food instead of giving him atrocious dog food. Heck, the loud girl sneaked him a few pieces of candy; it wasn't coffee-flavored gum but the gesture was appreciated.

Second of all, despite being a city dog all of his life Iggy could see the appeal of the fresh air and big open spaces that the woods around them provided. That and quiet sounds of the forest were much more welcome when trying to nap than the constant earsplitting noise from the city.

Maybe, just maybe, staying around wouldn't be so bad at all. That way he could get started in his dream of living a peaceful and carefree life, and not worry about having to go to get drag off to crazy adventures fighting Vampires or Stand Users.

Iggy was laying, again in the living room, in front of the turned on TV that "someone forgot to turn off", or at least that was what the humans would believe instead of Iggy using the remote to turn it on.

Sometimes making others believe he was just a simple dog made things easier for him. Unknown for him, this simple blessing he took for granted wouldn't last much longer.

"Oh my god! Mabel!" Dipper came running from downstairs looking awfully scared. Once he reached downstairs, he found Iggy giving him a questioning look. "Boy have you seen Mabel?"

Of course he did. He had seen the girl walk out of the house with the strange thing that didn't smell human. Even so, why did kids asked questions like this to dogs? They could never answer back. "Are you dumb or something?" Iggy barked back.

"I need to find Mabel! She's in terrible danger!" Dipper continue sounding honestly distraught. "She's gonna get eaten by a Zombie!"

' _Wow, wow, wow, wow! Hold it right there!_ ' Zombies? Where those even a thing in this place? Well, since Vampires did exist then Zombies weren't that far behind. Iggy recalled Mabel's "boyfriend" and how he didn't smell human, but that didn't meant he was a Zombie. For once, he didn't smell dead, rotten or evil. So the possibilities of it being a Zombie were almost zero.

Despite knowing this, Iggy couldn't exactly tell that to the boy, mostly because he was a dog and couldn't speak.

"I don't know where she is!" Dipper continued with his scarred rant. "Can you help me find her boy? Can't you smell where she is?" He asked hopefully.

 _'_ _He must be pretty desperate to be begging a dog for help.'_ Iggy thought humorously. Still he felt somewhat sorry for the boy. It was clear by his whole demeanor that he really cared for that sister of his and wanted nothing bad to happen to her; something Iggy could respect.

So Iggy decided to humor the boy; only because he liked Dipper for feeding him, providing him with a nice pillow for Iggy to sleep on and for not listening to Stan about giving him a bath; that last one he really appreciated.

Besides, what was the worst it could happen?

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Oh boy! how did he regret those words now!

Things certainly got progressively worse. Even thought at first it looked like it wasn't a big deal.

Dipper and Iggy borrowed a golf cart from a teenage girl named Wendy and drove into the woods in search of Mabel. That was the easy part.

Next, they arrived at a clearing and found out that Mabel's supposed boyfriend was in fact 5 gnomes on top of each other pretending to be human in order to snare Mabel and have her becoming their gnome queen and marry 1000 gnomes. That was weird but nothing Dipper, least of all Iggy couldn't handle.

After rescuing Mabel and driving away in the golf cart, both Iggy and Dipper thought that was the end of it all.

Oh how wrong they were!

Because then the Gnomes went after them, using some kind of strange ability to stack on top of each other to form a giant monster that chased after them keeping up with the golf cart no problem. The chased ended when the giant monster threw a whole tree at them causing then to veer off and turn the car upside down right back to where they started, at the Mystery Shack.

Dipper and Mabel were cowering underneath the imposing shadow of the monster while Iggy was crouching down baring his teeth.

Just how things got out of control like this? One second Iggy was contemplating about the new life he could start in this place and the next he was facing against a giant monster. It was like Egypt all over again!

And just like with Egypt, this confrontation had nothing to do with him! The gnomes only wanted the girl; they didn't care about a dog like him. So why did this even matter to him? Why did he had to risk his life for the sake of others?

Because…

Because then, he would be proving that bastard Vanilla Ice right; that he had no resolve nor a proud soul. Worst of all he would be insulting the memory of Abdul who sacrificed his own life to save Polnareff and him.

"It's the end of the line, kids! Mabel, marry us before we do something crazy!" The Gnome leader threatened from on top of the giant monster.

If Iggy bailed now, it would be an insult to Abdul, Polnareff, Kakyoin, Joseph and Jotaro, whom all risked their lives for the sake of others and to defeat evil. If Iggy bailed then he could never claim to have any honor or a proud soul or even have the right to call himself a Crusader.

A Stardust Crusader!

Iggy barked as jumped in between the kids and the monster. " _I don't know if can understand me! But leave these kids alone or you'll regret it!_ "

Apparently, Gnomes could not understand dogs. "Tell that ugly mutt to move out of the way or will squash it like a bug!"

Well, can't say Iggy didn't try to warn them. And so, Iggy called upon the power of his stand, The Fool, that allowed him to control dust, dirt and sand to create a patch of unstable ground below the monster causing it to lose its balance.

"Hey! What's going on!?"

Before they had any time to recover, Iggy used the dirt around to give and actual physical body to his stand which took an appearance of a mammal-like beast mixed with a car.

Both Dipper and Mabel stood astonished as the dirt around the Boston terrier moved on its own and formed a strange dog-like creature with muscular, pawed front legs and a car chassis, with thick wheels for hind legs. And before any of them could say or do something, both Iggy and the strange creature jumped towards the monster and tackled with enough forced forcing it to crumble in a rain of gnomes. Then as fast a car, Iggy and the being/vehicle speed around sending the little gnomes flying away back into the woods while others just ran off scared.

Once he was finished Iggy call off his stand making it crumble into a pile of dirt.

"Oh my gosh, Dipper! Did you see that?!" Mabel yelled awestricken by what she had seen.

"H-How did you do that?" Dipper was both happy that the gnomes were sent away but at the same time he was overwhelmed by what he had just witnessed. "What kind of dog are you?"

Knowing that the jig was up and that he couldn't keep pretending he was just a dumb dog, Iggy did the unthinkable and came clean. Using his stand he wrote down a message on the ground.

"Hello, Dipper and Mabel. My name is Iggy and I'm a Stand User."

He knew that letting the kids know about his intelligence and powers would put an end to his silent and carefree life he wanted so much. Then again, who knows what might happen? Maybe things will finally become normal for a change.

Or was this the start of another Bizarre Adventure?

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I'm already writing a JJBA/Gravity Falls Xover, so why not start there?
> 
> So what inspired this piece besides the aforementioned fic? Well, I always thought that in Gravity Falls Dipper lacked a friend. Sure he is supposed be awkward and what not and that he has Mabel, Soos, Wendy hanging around. But he never had a friend that was HIS friend, you know what I mean? And the idea of him having a pet just like Mabel has Waddles intrigued me. So what better pet/friend than a dog that is as smart as he is and controls sand to boot.
> 
> Again, if you like any of the ideas presented here, feel free to use them on your own stories and if you have suggestions as to what series Iggy should visit, please leave a comment or a review!


	3. Young Justice

_Mount Justice._

_July 9, 10:00_

"What do you mean by another trainer and supervisor?" Wally West, well known by his hero codename Kid Flash, crossed his arms in front of him looking annoyed at the Justice League member in charge. "I thought you and Black Canary were those things."

"Allow me to explain…" The supervisor of this newly formed covert team, Red Tornado talked in his monotone robotic voice. "I shall remain in my role as Supervisor of this team and Black Canary will handle your training, but the league decided to also send someone who is well versed in covert operations to help evaluate your performance in and out-side of missions."

"I thought this was our team." Superboy scowled thinking that the league was assigning them a full time baby sitter as if they needed one.

"It is." The android reaffirmed. "Because of the nature of his missions, he is not a registered as a member of the league or publicly known as a hero."

Now that got everybody's interest; a deep cover agent that no one but the league knows about? That was quite remarkable.

"So who exactly is this new addition?" Robin, the boy wonder and Batman's sidekick, was the most curious of them all. Anything that was a mystery or an unknown he had to crack it.

"He is known by many names." Red Tornado informed. "He changes his identity quite often, but he is known to us as: The Fool."

"The Fool?" Wally couldn't help but laugh. "What kind of name is that?" Though nobody else said it out-loud, the team shared the speedster's sentiment.

"One with a lot of meaning." A deep voice with a heavy accent cut in surprising the heck out of the team. "Very unlike the ones you younglings possess."From the shadows, the owner of the voice walked into the light showing himself to the Team.

It was a middle aged man, Middle Eastern judging by his accent and skin tone, with above average height and a noticeable heavy build despite the clothes he was wearing. Speaking of clothes; the man was wearing a heavy overcoat with elbow-long sleeves, and a long scarf. On his head he was wearing a headband and underneath his black haired was tied upwards in a very unusual style. He also wore a long metallic necklace that hung from his ears, depicting several strange symbols.

Needless to say, the man had a very "noticeable" appearance. But the most striking thing about the man was the fact that on his shoulder he was carrying a black and white Boston terrier.

"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Wally took offense at the man's claim that he and his friends' codenames weren't meaningful.

The man chuckled as he took out a long card from within his coat and threw it towards the Speedster. Fortunately, it wasn't hard enough for the boy to snatch it from mid-air.

"Huh? What's this?" He said looking at the card.

"I shall explain since you don't seem to know." The robbed man walked towards the group who watched him with interest. "The Fool Tarot card is often viewed as representing: Naivety, foolishness, recklessness, risk-taking. All of which can be applicable to all of you." Before the more hot-blooded members could complain about his words, he continued. "But in reality, The Fool is a card of potential, new beginnings and innocence; it shows the highest potential for your life, reaching a state of renewal and new beginnings, where each day is an adventure and each moment is lived to the fullest."

"Really?" M'gann M'orzz, a.k.a Megan a.k.a Miss Martian, the niece of the Martian Manhunter, looked fascinated by his words. She had always been interested in Magic and divination as well.

"This new Team has just begun its journey. And it is up to you to find out if this new beginning will bring up your full potential as heroes or if this team was a foolish errand since its conception." He finished, his solemn words engraving themselves in the minds of the young heroes.

Even so, the peaceful moment of quiet that followed was severely interrupted by none other than the boy wonder. "Do you carry this card with you at all times to explain your name?"

The robbed man ignored the boy's smartass comment.

"You may call me Abdul for now." He introduced himself and then pointed at the dog on his shoulder, "And this is Iggy."

"He is so cute." Miss Martian gushed at the small dog, while the others thought that the animal looked like it suffered a severe case of slobber.

"You may not find him so cute after today's exercise." Abdul said ominously.

"Are we to start training for today?" Kaldur'ahm, or Kaldur for short a.k.a Aqualad, looked both interested yet cautious at the same time. It was a commendable way to approach this.

"It would be more like a survival test." Abdul said ominously. "You may attack me at your own discretion, whenever and however you like. I recommend you to not hold back." This he said with a small smirk adorning his face. "The point is to show off your skills against mine and whoever does not impress me will be removed from the team."

The reaction was instantaneous.

"What?!"

"That's not fair!"

"You can't do that!"

"I may not be an 'official' member of the League, but they trust my judgment. If you don't believe me, you can go and ask Batman and he'll tell you the same thing." He informed self-assuredly. "Whether you like it or not, my decision of who stays or leaves will be final." Abdul said in a deadly tone. "So you better give 100% because if you don't you can all fail and be removed from the team." Like the real word, this was do-or-die at its finest. "30 minutes. I shall be waiting at the beach."

And with that, the man and dog walked away, leaving the groups of teens both confused and frustrated.

"Who the hell does that guy think he is?!" Wally clenched his fist both angry and a little intimidated by the possibility of failing.

"Hmn, he doesn't look that tough." Superboy, the clone of Superman, said sounding disinterested. "He wants us to show him our powers, then I'll show him mine!" he cracked his knuckles.

"He couldn't possibly fail us all, right?" Ms. Martian asked still worried by the man's warning.

"There's no way! This must be a trick." Robin rubbed his chin in deep thought. "There's no way the League would waste time fixing this place up for this team only to kick us out."

"It could be a tactic to put us on edge." Aqualad theorized. By putting the fear of failure on them he could either make them push their limits or fall into despair. "What can you tell us about him, Red Tornado?"

Everyone turned towards the android and awaited his answer.

"My only advice is to heed his warning, because he never goes back on them." The android had known The Fool and despite of his name, he didn't kid around. "I do not know what type of test he has planned, but I recommend you to prepare for anything." Having said that, Red Tornado was prepared to leave, but was held back by another of Robin's questions.

"How strong is he?" He didn't beat around the bush. "He being an infiltration expert, means he isn't really that big of a powerhouse, right?"

"Appearances can be deceiving." And that old saying applied perfectly to The Fool.

"But like, he's not stronger than you, right?" Wally asked hoping to gauge the man's powers with someone else to compare him to.

Red Tornado went quiet for a few seconds, though for the team it felt like an eternity. "I've never met him in battle," He began, broking the heavy silence. "But based on all information available and footage of his past battles, I'll say… I would never want to have him as an enemy." And with that, the android left the teens alone with their thoughts.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

After getting out of their civilian clothes and gearing up, the team walked towards the beach where Abdul was supposed to be waiting for them. Instead they found another strange man.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" Megan was the first one to ask as they approach the man who really shouldn't be in this place.

"Ah! So you decided to come! Good!" The man said too casually, as if they had already met before.

"Do we know you?" Wally asked looking at the man's appearance.

First of all he looked like he was 50 or something thanks to his gray hair and beard, but he had very well defined muscles, not to mention he was very tall. As for his clothes, he was wearing a light, short-sleeved, button-less shirt; khaki pants and a fedora. Honestly he kinda looked like a buffier yet older Indiana Jones.

"I can't believe you already forgot who I am." The man reproached before smirking. "It is me: The Fool."

"You honestly think we are gonna believe that?!" Kid Flash pointed towards the man with his index finger. "You do not look anything like…"

"K.F. don't you remember?" Robin interrupted his friend. "He is an infiltration expert. It is not hard to believe he might be able to change appearances." Heck they had a shape-shifter in the team, although she was not all that good with it by her own admission.

"You can shape-shift?" Megan asked intrigued by The Fool's abilities.

"Or maybe this is just a type of misdirection." Aqualad reminded them they were currently in a test. "He can say he is the Fool, but how can be sure that's the truth."

"Indeed. You are quite perceptive, Aqualad." The man claiming to be the Fool clapped congratulating the atlantean for his quick thinking. "The ability to never take things for granted and always looking for deceptions will do you good in this line of work."

"So are you or are you not him?" Superboy asked getting tired of all this back and forward. "I thought we were here for a test."

"To answer your first question: Yes and no." The man answered before he elaborated. "I am The Fool, but I'm no longer Abdul. Right now I am Joseph Joestar." He introduced his new persona. "As for proving if I'm the real thing or not; you can either take my word for it or not."

"That actually doesn't help at all." Wally pointed out getting even more suspicious.

"Well, if I were a fake could I do this?" The man, now identifying himself as Joseph, whistled making a small dog, Iggy, come running and jumping onto his shoulder. "See?"

"Still doesn't prove anything." If the dog was trained then it could answer to anyone who knew the right command.

"Anyway, let's start with the test." Joseph announced ignoring the speedster's words.

"Finally." Superboy cracked his neck and knuckles in preparation for whatever the test might be.

"The objective is simple. All you have to do is to capture me." Joseph said sounding serious. "Like I said before, you can attack me however you like and DO NOT hold back, because I will retaliate like this was a real battle. Show me you have the skills for this sort of job, otherwise you are out! You have three hours!" And with that, the color in Joseph's body faded and he crumbled in a pile of sand.

"Wow! What was that?" Wally pointed incredibly towards the pile of sand that once was their instructor.

"Some sort of Sand construct." Robin pointed out. "Maybe his ability is similar to that of Clayface?" The boy wondered recalled the Batman rouge whose abilities revolved around the manipulation of mud-like clay.

"That is probably why he made us met at the beach." Aqualad sounded alarmed. "He can hide and attack from anywhere."

"Who cares? I'll just find him and beat him up!" Superboy declared as he jumped away from the rest of the team in search of The Fool.

"Wait we shouldn't…!" The Martian girl tried to warn the kryptonian but it was too late.

"Damn, if he founds him first and takes him out then we won't be able to show off our skills and we'll be kicked out." Wally said as he adjusted his goggles and then bolted in a flash.

"No don't!" Kaldur tried to stop the speedster but he was a little too late.

Then when a cackle reached his ears, the atlantean realized only the only members that remained were Miss Martian and him.

"This won't end well." He could already feel that the rest had fallen into whatever scheme The Fool had prepared for them.

"Uhm… Kaldur?" Megan asked soflty. "What should we do now?"

"It is better if we stay together and search for the others."

"What about Iggy?" The girl pointed towards the small black and white dog that was still near the pile of sand that once was Joseph.

"Let him be. It probably was left behind so that it would stay away from battle." Right now, there was better things to worry about than a dog.

"Ok then." The girl nodded deciding to trust in Kaldur's words. "Bye Iggy." She waved the dog goodbye and she then followed Aqualad in the search for the others and their instructor.

But what they didn't realize was that Iggy was staring at them with very calculating eyes.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Kid Flash was running around the beach and through the forest-like area at the base of the mountain, searching for any signs of "The Fool", and by the way, that was still a dumb sounding name.

He was readying himself to up the speed to check the area one more time until he found a strange figures sitting in a clearing. The young hero came to a stop and pointed at the person. "Hey you! Who are you?" Since The Fool could change appearances this person could be him or just some random hitchhiker. But based on the clothes he was wearing, K.F doubted it was anyone but the Fool.

The person that Wally encountered was a somewhat tall young guy with a slender figure. He had long red-ish hair and was wearing some sort of dark green uniform.

"So my first opponent is the Speedster with the loose mouth." The guy said with a barely noticeable yet peculiar accent. Japanese maybe?

"So it is you, Fool!" He kept pointing at the guy. "Now I'll I have to do is beat you and capture you to pass this test!"

"Very well, come at me with your best shot!" The red-head dared as he took a strange pose with his arms crossing in front of him. Not really the best starting position for a fight, much less a superhero rumble. "And the name's Kakyoin Noriaki."

Kakyoin sidestepped swiftly as the rapid moving body of Kid Flash failed to graze him. Wasting no opportunity, the ground underneath shifted sporadically making the speedster lose his footing and with no solid ground for him to break, he ended up colliding with one of the trees surrounding the clearing.

"You got lucky!" Wally shot back not easily undeterred and tried once more, this time instead on going for a direct hit at full speed; he maneuvered around in a lesser speed yet still faster than any human.

"At least you aren't dumb enough to try and do the same failing tactic twice." Kakyoin noted using a very serious and he even sounded analytical, but for the teen being judged, he took double the offence and tried to attack directly once more.

Kakyoin dodged once more and then retaliated with a back handed strike, sending Kid Flash into the ground in pain. "You should never lose focus; otherwise you'll be put at a disadvantage." The lean young man lectured, making Wally angrier that he didn't look like he was taking thing seriously.

"How's this for a disadvantage?" Wally moved his arms in a circular motion trying to create a vortex of wind to send the guy flying off. But as soon as he was gaining some good traction, he started to feel like he was losing control of his arms and then the rest of his body. "Hey?! What's happening to me?!"

Kakyoin was quick to answer. "I restrained you." He approached the speedster who was currently as stiff as a board. "You should really be more careful to watch for your surroundings." He pointed at the young hero's legs where a trail of thick string coming from the ground was running up his legs and then over his body. "Otherwise you'll fall in the web of the enemy."

"What's up with these freaky strings?" He struggled to move again, but to no avail.

"Hierophant Green; or at least how I remember it." The Fool said sounding slightly melancholic.

"High-o-what green?" Wally asked utterly confused by the word he had never heard before.

"Hierophant, a Greek High Priest, it is also a Card in the Tarot." Kakyoin clarified.

"God, no more of that superstitious nonsense." Wally was a self-declared man of science and believed everything could be explained using logic and science. Believing that a bunch of cards held the answer to the future was ludicrous to him.

"Perhaps you could learn a lesson or two if you just open your mind." Kakyoin looking at the speedster in the eye. "The cards do not only serve to predict the future, but also they illustrate the structure of human consciousness and, as such, hold the keys to life lessons passed down through the ages. The imagery of the Major Arcana is filled with wisdom from multiple cultures and traditions, including the Egyptian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi, Hebrew and Christian religions."

"Yeah no, I'm not buying it." Wally rolled his eyes since it was the only thing he could move on right now, being at the mercy of The Fool. "So spare me the lecture."

"I believe you resonate a lot with the Hierophant card." Kakyoin smiled, letting the teen know he was in for a lecture. "You walked a fine path between its meanings. You seek to be part of a group you can call your own: this Team of Young Heroes for example; and you live your life under the beliefs and traditions set up by your mentor: The Flash."

"Wow, like that doesn't describe any of the others!" Wally answered sardonically. "Makes me feel so special!"

"Indeed you are correct." The Fool agreed with a nod. "But the difference lies on the opposite side of the Hierophant card. Because if reversed, the card tell us that you feel restricted or constrained by those same rules and traditions, and as a result, you feel like you lost a lot of flexibility and control in your life."

Wally remained silent, not wanting to confirm or deny the guy's words.

"You have a strong desire to go against the grain and break free from convention. You constantly feel tempted to go about your own way of doing things even if it is unorthodox; tempted to do something that is outrageous or against social norms; either to rebel or to step out of someone's shadow and become your own man."

When Kid Flash turned his head away, the Fool knew he had hit the head of the nail. Wally reflected on some of the things he said and did, that sometimes were out-of-line, but he couldn't help them because he wanted to stand out and be himself. And sometimes that got in reprimanded or in trouble because, a hero should be above or avoid doing certain things. He meant no disrespect for his mentor and the other heroes but sometimes it really felt like the strict code of conduct they upheld was chaining him down.

"Don't you worry, Kid Flash. You are still young and free to decide what sort of path you wish to walk upon." Kakyoin reassured the young man with a confident smile. "But I'm afraid that the lesson is over for today."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Wally asked but got no answer. Instead, he was pelted by a shower of green rocks that knocked him unconscious.

"That went well." Kakyoin said looking at the now sleeping teen. He then turned his gaze away from the speedster and towards a tree from where a small dog appeared.

"Bark! Bark!" Iggy "said" though it was unnecessary since he could communicate with the Fool with a mere thought.

"You are right, that "Emerald Splash" still needs work to look like the original." The Fool looked at his hands knowing full well that there was still ways to go before they got the whole thing down. "How about we go look for the rest?"

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

"Where the hell are you?!" Superboy yelled frustrated as he landed on the ground causing a small tremor; he had been jumping high in the sky in the search of the instructor to show him how strong he really was. "Stop hiding!"

"Oh! Were you looking for _moi_?" A man with a very noticeable French accent stepped out from behind a tree.

"Are you him?" the clone of superman growled out.

"Allow me to introduce myself. _Mon nom est_ Jean Pierre Polnareff, or as you might already figured it out Ze Fool." Polnareff was a tall man with a tall hairstyle of silvery hair. He also wore a black top and white pants.

"About time you stopped hiding like a coward!" Superboy readied himself to fight.

"Nuh-uh! Don't you forget dat finding moi was part of zi exercise?" Polnareff waved his index finger at the muscled teen.

"Would you cut it out with that annoying accent?" Superboy was getting peeved by the forced accent the guy was doing. "Or do you want me to shut your mouth permanently?" He wouldn't have a problem with breaking the guy's jaw just so he would stop annoying him.

"Don't you know that being angry all the time is bad for the skin?" The guy asked jokingly and thankfully enough, he put a stop to the accent. "Then again, you were made to be like the Big Blue with the S on his chest."

Superboy growled once more, angry because of the mocking tone on the guy's voice. "Enough talk!" He charged towards the French man ready to pummel him and turn him into a smear on the ground.

Seeing the attack coming from a mile away, Polnareff quickly moved out of the way and used the clone's own momentum to make him trip and fall on the dirty floor. After getting up, Superboy proceeded to do the same thing over and over again, failing to catch the Frenchman over and over again frustrating him to no end.

"Come on fight back!" All that the guy was doing was dodging and jumping around like a coward.

"I'm noticing a severe lack of speed." Polnareff noted, once again making fun of the angry boy. "Are you not the clone of Superman? Where is your speed?" Reminded the boy of the Kryptonian and his apparent lack of powers compared to him, made Superboy explode!

"Raaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwhhh!" Like an untamed beast, he launched himself with no regards of anything but to wipe the smirk from the guy's face.

"But if you insist! Then allow me to retaliate!" Then from out of nowhere, a silver rapier appeared on the man's hand and used it to riposte Superboy, who ended up on the ground once more.

After picking himself up, Superboy noticed that his shirt had been torn to pieces. "You think you can defeat me with just that? You only cut my shirt off!"

"I assure you my dear Superboy, my Silver Chariot is more than enough to defeat you." Polnareff declared, confusing the clone a bit.

Why does he call his sword a chariot? That made no sense! But this wasn't the time to think about that. Superboy attacked once more completely unafraid of the Frenchman's weapon of choice. He was a clone of Superman! And normal weapons didn't affect the man, so why would they affect him?

Polneraff was disappointed by the boy's performance; both his untamed rage and overconfidence were his weakest points. Not his lacks of many powers that Superman had, like Super Speed. Speaking of which…

"Chariot Top Speed!" Polnareff used his silver rapier to strike Superboy in multiple places in what seemed a blink of an eye.

Superboy had the mind to step back after that barrage of hits, but he noticed that no matter how many times he was struck he still didn't receive any damage. "It's useless! Your sword cannot pierce my skin!"

"I never meant to pierce your skin." Polneraff informed with a smirk. "I was aiming at your pressure points."

"My what…?" Superboy meant to say more but he was cut off when he felt his body turn really heavy. "W-What?"

"And to complete full combo!" Polnareff pointed his sword towards the ground underneath Superboy's feet and then it suddenly turned from solid ground, into quick sand that quickly dragged him down until the only thing you could see of the boy was his head. "That should keep you busy for a few hours."

"Y-You…! Pull me out of here!" Superboy struggled but he couldn't move a single pinky, and the more he struggled the more he wasted his energy.

After a whole ten minutes of struggling in vain, the clone finally gave up after feeling tired. Something he thought wasn't possible.

"Do you know why you lost this battle, Superboy?" The Frenchman asked, not in a mocking tone, but like a teacher hoping to impart an important lesson.

"Because you're a coward that fights dirty?" The boy shot back too tired to even shout.

"Non, non, non!"He waved his index finger "You lost because you, my boy, encompass all the negatives traits of the Chariot."

"What does that mean?" Superboy asked confused. "Isn't Chariot the name of you sword?" Just what the hell was this guy even talking about?

"Oui, but also it is the name of a Tarot card." The Frenchman said, making the boy recall how the guy's name, The Fool, came also from the illustrated deck of cards. "Directionless, lack of control and Aggression are all the bad traits the Chariot Card represents. Does it sound familiar?"

Superboy just sneered, not liking where this was going.

"Fear not, my boy, because there are positive traits to this card as well." Polnareff smiled trying to sound reassuring. "The Chariot represents conquest, victory and overcoming opposition. Things I'm sure are always on your mind." When Superboy neither agreed nor denied his words, he continued. "And you can achieve those goals through confidence and control."

"I'm pretty confident of my power."

"Arrogant is more apt." There was a fine line between the two of them. "And even if that wasn't the case, you also severely lack Self-control." Superboy just narrowed his eyes in annoyance; he didn't like to be reminded of his short-comings.

"I know it's hard and believe me, I know how difficult it is to overcome your own flaws of character." Everyone has them, and to prosper one needed to overcome them. "Aggression is part of human and even Kryptonian nature, it is part of your innate survival mechanism." And every sentient being be alien or from earth, they were all the same. "People will tell you that your Anger is bad and that you have to get rid of it; but that is simply not true. Don't believe you can completely get rid of your aggression or that you can simply suppress it; to do so will only turn it inward on yourself, leaving it to manifest itself in the form of physical illness and pain."

Now this caught Superboy's attention. What the man was saying was that there wasn't anything inherently bad or evil in the way he acted, and that it was in fact normal.

"Anger can be very destructive, true. But it is also a powerful energy that can be channeled creatively." If correctly directed and used, anger could be a powerful ally. "If you want to prove yourself as strong as or even stronger than Superman, you need to be the master of your emotions and rein in any impulses of anger."

Superboy was stunned. Could it be true? Could he be come as strong if not stronger than the man he was cloned from?

"If you want to show everyone how strong you really are and achieve your goals you need to learn how to be in control of yourself." This was the most important and yet most difficult hurdle to overcome. "You must be determined, self-disciplined, and hard working. If you accomplish this, you will triumph over any difficulties or anyone who is trying to limit you. This struggle will ultimately make you stronger."

The boy was left speechless.

"Are you ready to make that first step?"

"I…" He had difficulty coming up with the appropriate words; it was all too much to process in so little time.

"No need to answer me just yet." Polneraff laughed it off. He didn't mean to come as strong there at the end. "You can give me your answer after you've taken your nap."

"Nap?" The boy trapped in the sand repeated confused just to get knocked out the next second thanks to a precise strike on a pressure point located on the back of the neck.

Polneraff looked down sadly at his silver rapier as it crumbled and turned into dirt. "Still not as strong or as fast as the original." He lamented, because he knew it was near impossible to accomplish such feat. "Good thing highly compressed sand is a decent substitute." The Fool commented as he turned to Iggy who just nodded in agreement.

"Two down, three more to go."

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Robin remained silent. He had stood so for the past hour and a half, and probably would continue until he finally caught a glimpse of The Fool.

Ever since the "test" started, Robin had taken up to the Trees near the beach to stay well hidden under their canopy. After seeing the construct calling itself Joseph crumble, the young boy form a pretty quick idea as to what sort of powers their instructor had.

Just like he commented back with the others, the ability to create moving talking bodies out of sand reminded him a lot of Clayface; one of his mentor's most versatile opponents; except that in case of The Fool: he used sand instead of clay. Yet there probably was more to it.

' _If he really is an infiltration expert, he must be able to do something more than just control sand_.' Otherwise his range of missions would be somewhat limited. Not to mention, Red Tornado said that he wouldn't want to be The Fools enemy, meaning that the man could keep up against the android that could create violent bursts of wind.

' _Could he control glass?_ ' The Fool controlled sand and glass was made out of liquid sand, so maybe he could also control glass? Could he also control the individual molecules or atoms that constituted sand and change their molecular composition or was he limited to control just the grains? Was he limited to a type of sand like say, the one made out of silica, or he could control all types of sand like aragonite, volcanic ash, tar sand, and iron sand? What about range? Was he limited so a certain quantity, size, or mass or he could theoretically move the entire Sahara Desert if he wanted to? For how long can he move and control sand in distance and time?

The more he thought about it, the more worried he got, there was so many unknowns.

 _'_ _Although in this terrain, controlling just beach sand might be enough.'_ The Fool summoned them to the beach, where there was an excessive amount of sand he could use to his advantage. That is why he opted to remain up high, that way he could not only scout for the man, but also stay safe from the sand below; or at least safer than he would be staying on the ground. As to why he stayed close to the beach instead of going on the opposite direction, the answer was very simple. The Fool said stated that they needed to capture him, meaning that he had to find him first; and since it was them going after him, the logical conclusion for him it would be to remain at the beach where he had the tactical advantage.

Add to it the time limit and the pressure of trying not to fail and be removed from the team, and you had quite an intense puzzle in your hands.

If Robin left the relative safety of his hiding spot to search on the beach he would be committing tactical "suicide", but if he hung about on the trees the time limit would run out and he would lose. It was at times like this when the Boy wondered what his mentor would do in this sort of situation.

Robin then was snapped out of his thoughts when he caught movement at the edge of his vision. Staying completely still behind the cover that the trees foliage provided, the boy observed how the man that introduced himself as Abdul walked down the beach.

The Bow Wonder, tensed a little bit. Did the Fool know where he was hiding? Or was he baiting him to attack and blow his cover? Or maybe the man was so sure of himself and the tactical advantage he had that he was just strolling on the beach, unworried of whatever attack may come?

Whatever the case may be, Robin had decided to play smart and had prepared a little surprise for their instructor. As soon as the man was in range, Robin pushed a switch that activated a sonic canon that would've knocked down anyone that wasn't a Kryptonian, and it worked perfectly fine. Except that instead of falling in pain for the sonic shock waves, the man turned into a pile of sand.

' _So it was a sand construct, huh?_ ' Meaning it had been a bait to drag him out of his hiding place. Robin thought about moving and changing positions, but he refrain from moving a single muscle. He might've revealed he was hiding in a place with a view to the place the trap was set up, but the range for the activation switch was large enough for him to still remain safe where he was.

Now, all he had to do was to wait for his opponent to make the next move.

Soon after, Sand started to form again in four different pillars that quickly shape themselves to look like Abdul.

' _Four constructs…_ ' He observed how the constructs readied themselves and slowly moved around trying to scout him out. As he was doing this, Robin pondered the reason why he had summoned four. Was that the limit he had for constructs? Or was he limiting himself to just four so he wouldn't tire himself up?

There was also the question of whenever the constructs shared a mental link with the real Fool, or if they had minds on their own? In order to prove either theory, he had prepared even more surprises. All he had to do was bid his time, and wait for one of the constructs to…

BOOOM!

Step on a mine he had set up before hand.

Robin knew it was callous to use explosives on a simple test, but the man himself told them to attack him in whatever way they wanted, so he had the the Fool's full permission to do as he pleased.

Wasting no time, Robin activated the rest of the traps, which involved special freeze disks that would trap in ice whatever was caught in their vicinity. Successfully he managed to trap the other three constructs in ice.

Now he had to observe if the Fool created more constructs or would try and break the ones encased inside the ice.

The more he knew about his opponent's strengths and limitations, the faster he could create an strategy to beat and capture the Fool, showing once and for all that he deserved to be in the team.

Alas, things don't go as planned and instead of another sand clone of Abdul appearing, several hands made of sand rose from the ground, and on each one was a different device that Robin had set up as a trap. Each hand rose and rose into the sky before all slammed together at the same time destroying each of the devices in a big explosion.

' _Well, there goes all my hidden traps left._ '

Then, from beneath the sand Abdul rose unlike the constructs from before, making Robin think that maybe he was the real deal. He threw two of his custom made birdarangs; one flew towards the man, making him dodge, while the other thanks to its dynamic form, curved so it would hit the Abdul from a blind spot. Unfortunately the second projectile only managed to grace him after some sand moved to try and protect him.

' _That must be the real one_!' Otherwise he would've let the birdarand strike instead of trying to protect himself with the sand. Acting quickly, Robin jumped from his hiding spot and threw even more projectiles; but unlike the previous ones, these were set to detonate in a series of explosions and also release smoke.

Even if The Fool defended himself with Sand the explosions were powerful enough to blow the sand away, and even if that wasn't the case, the shockwaves produced by the explosions would rattle him enough to disorient him and open him up for attacks, and if that also failed, the smoke would stay around for several minutes making it difficult to breathe and the moment he stepped out of the clouds of smoke looking for fresh air then Robin would attack him taking him by surprise.

A simple yet very efficient strategy.

The explosives went boom and Abdul disappeared being a big cloud of thick gray smoke. Robin stood in position readying to attack the moment the man appeared again. But for what felt like an eternity, nothing happened. Everything felt silent except for the sounds of the sea at the distance.

The Boy Wonder waited patiently for the smoke to clear out, and when it finally did, he found something quite interesting waiting underneath it.

A Black Coffin, or maybe a sarcophagus, with an Ankh ( ) engraved on the front, stood tall and unmoving on top of the bright sand of the beach. And once all the smoke had cleared out, the casket opened revealing Abdul completely fine and unharmed.

"That was a fine and well executed surprise attack." Abdul congratulated as he looked towards the exact same tree where the boy was hiding. "It would've worked had Batman not used the same tactic on me before." Meaning that he had more or less had expected this attack from the boy and was well prepared to deal with it; and was probably ready for any other tactics used by the Dark Knight himself. "And before you retreat and try again with a different tactic ask yourself: 'How long can I keep throwing projectiles before I run out?' and 'How long would it take me to make a different strategy when time is running short?'"

Robin bit his lip.

The fool was right. He couldn't just keep attacking from a distance without running out of projectiles after a while and quite frankly, he didn't think they could be of any help. Maybe if he had known beforehand what the Fool could do and the extent of his powers, then he could've prepared accordingly. Maybe more freezing disks to keep render his sand inert by trapping inside of ice; then again in this environment he would need enough disks to freeze the whole beach over, and he wasn't intending in becoming Mr. Freeze any time soon.

Hand to Hand combat was out, and only to be used as last resort because against this guy and all the advantages he had on his favor, it would be next to useless. He needed a plan and needed one fast.

And so a picturesque moment was made: a caped and masked boy hiding on a tree with a tall robbed man watching him from the beach below.

"You remind me a lot of The Magician." Abdul said while crossing his arms hiding them inside the long sleeves of his robes, while Robin remained quiet.

The Magician? Who was that? The only person he knew about that bear that name was the Dark Archer Merlyn. But the Fool couldn't possibly be talking about him, right?

Abdul then pulled out a card from his robed and showed it to the Boy Wonder. "You are a lot like the Magician on this Tarot Card; incredibly skilled, resourceful and your power of concentration is superb."

Though flattering, Robin couldn't help but wonder how the man knew about any of that.

Chuckling, Abdul put away the Card back into his sleeves before answering. "Let us say that Batman told me about you and he thinks highly of you."

That made Robin mentally stopped in its tracks. He knew his mentor wasn't one to express much emotion and had difficulty expression approval or giving praise and Robin knew that Batman respected his skills otherwise they wouldn't be partners. But to hear that Bruce talked highly about him to other heroes was sort of a revelation.

"Just like The Magician, you succeed in everything that you set up to do." Abdul continued with his praise. "You accomplish your goals by utilizing the skills, tools and resources that are available to you. You can come up with creative ways to solve problems and you are able to use your existing knowledge and networks to find optimal solutions to things unknown."

And just as Robin was feeling pretty well about the good things that were being said about him, Abdul suddenly changed his expression to a more serious one.

"But all of your skills and knowledge can be your downfall too." The man sighed heavily. "Being so talented, especially at a young age as yours, can lead you to two downward paths." He lifted his index finger as he explain, "First is the path of greed and desire: Once you experience the peak of what you can accomplish, you will desire even more and more and that desire will end up consuming you." He could think of many talented people who end up going through this destructive path. "And the Second one is the path of vanity." He said lifting now a second finger. "So much talent and power without restrain or humility may put you out of touch with reality and you will struggle to bring yourself back down to earth."

"You are saying I might become too arrogant." Robin summarized what Abdul was saying; finally breaking his silence.

"You are arrogant." Abdul corrected. "You thought you could defeat me or at least find a way to do so on your own, because you are so confident in all your skills, talents and equipment from all your battles and victories against Batman's foes."

Robin became silent once more. Though he didn't admit it out-loud, he couldn't deny that deep down he might have felt like those words rang a little true.

"This arrogance made you abandon your teammates and now you are all alone." Abdul said with a disappointed look on his face. "That is why you lost this battle."

Robin had to admit the Fool was right. His weapons were useless against the man and the moment he left the safety of higher ground to try and attack, he opened himself to be attacked by the sand below. He was like a cat stuck on top of a tree. But unlike a cat that survived on instincts alone; Robin could put his talents to use to find a safe way down.

"You may have won this battle, but the war is far from over." Robin smirked as he released several smoke bombs as a distraction. If he could make it back to the others, maybe together they could find a way to defeat the Fool and pass this test.

Jumping away, Robin hoped to use the trees to make a safe return towards his teammates, but in the middle of a jump and with no grappling hook ready to change direction mid-jump, Robin was intercepted by a factor he had completely forgotten all about.

That factor being a Boston terrier coming right at him, and Robin's face ended up smothered by the dog's whole body. And before he could do anything to move the dog away from his face, Iggy, if he recalled the name correctly, released a pungent flatulence right on his face.

The fart was fetid enough to knock the boy wonder unconscious, marking his most humiliating defeat to date and for years to come.

"Thanks Iggy, had it not been for your quick intervention, he could've escaped." Abdul said after the saved the young boy from what could've been a nasty fall. "Though I think you may have went a little too far."

Iggy just barked making Abdul smile. "I guess you are right. Taking him a peg or two down would humble him, just like when you did the same to Batman." He recalled the time they have pulled the same trick on the boy's mentor.

For all of his training, experience against mob bosses, psycho clowns, mad scientists, monsters and aliens, and all of his prep time, the Dark Knight was unprepared against having a dog be thrown at him faster than a baseball by a professional pitcher. Now thanks to them, he was always prepared for that.

"Now, how about we go get the last two?"

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

"Do you think the others are fine?" Miss Martian asked Aqualad. The two of them had heard several explosions at a distance, signifying that a battle was taking place. But after a while, the sound of explosions simply stopped and everything went silent, and stayed silent for several minutes, signifying that the battle must have been over.

Instead of rushing with no idea of who had won, they decided to slow their pace in case that the Fool was still around waiting to attack them by surprise. While Aqualad walked next to the water, Ms. Martian floated above him. She would've walked next to him, but Kaldur suggested keeping an elevated position so she could spot the others or their instructor.

The Atlantean on the other hand opted for searching the beach near the water, not only because the beach was the most likely place The Fool would be waiting for them, but because if they encountered him, Aqualad could try and get some advantage by being on the water.

A decent formation, but still they were walking on the edge since they were surrounded by sand which the Fool seemed to control.

"Is there a way you could try and locate them with your telepathy?" Kaldur suggested instead of saying what really was on his mind. That the other might already been defeated by the Fool.

"Hello Megan!" She suddenly said as she softly taped her temple with her palm. "I could try and connect to them through our minds." That way it would be easy to find out where they were and how they were doing.

"Could you keep a telepathic contact for all of us? That way we could coordinate without having to talk and have the Fool hear us." Otherwise the experienced hero could easily counterattack any strategies that might make.

"Of course it would be easy." Megan said as he first established a link with Aqualad. " _This is how we communicate back on Mars_."But the unexpected intensity of her words on his head caused Aqualad to clutch his head in slight pain.

"It worked, but please try to reduce the intensity, Megan. Also ask for permission and give a warning first because here on Earth it is considered an invasion of privacy." Kaldur explained not really that angry with the girl since she probably wasn't accustomed with how things were on Earth.

"I'm so sorry, Kaldur." She apologized profusely. "I'll be sure to follow your advice." She wouldn't want to offend anyone or make people hate her. "I'll try to see if I can sense anyone near here." The Martian girl then concentrated expanding her telepathic range eager to sense someone nearby.

Then she felt something. "I got something!"

"Who is it?" Aqualad asked hopeful that she might've located one of the others. "Is it one of the others or is it the Fool

"Uhm…" Megan mumbled hesitantly. "You see… it isn't exactly human."

"So you found Superboy?" That was the only non-human besides them.

"I wish…" she answered before she realized what she said. "I-I mean… it is not him." She was getting a little red faced. "I think it is…"

Then the sound of barking interrupted her and both young heroes saw the small dog running towards them.

"I guess that's the non-human you located?" Kaldur said slightly disappointed that it wasn't one of the others.

"Sorry…" She apologized again dropping her head a little.

"Do not be. You did that you could, and I'm thankful for it." He said reassuringly turning the girl's mood up again. "I guess this means neither the others nor the Fool are near us." So they were still at square one, except that now Iggy was there too.

"Oh you think so?" A voiced said making both teens jump in fright and turned around to see Joseph Joestar standing there with a silly grin on his face. "Hello."

"Where did you come from?" Aqualad questioned while keeping his cool. It would do him no good to allow himself to lose focus and thereafter the battle.

"Well, when a man and a woman love each other…"

"I mean how did you sneak pass us." Kaldur interrupted not finding he man's antic humorous. "How did you evade Ms. Martian's detection?"

"When you spend so much time around the Martian Manhunter as I do, you learn a few things about concealing and protecting your mind against attacks." Joseph playfully knocked the side of his head.

"I didn't know you were friends with Uncle J'onn." Ms. Martian said surprised that her uncle was close to him, to the extent of him learning how to block mental detection.

"Good, otherwise I'd have needed to chat with him about not respecting our agreement." Joseph answered creating even more questions that didn't needed to be answered right then. "But that's a story for another time, now we are in the middle of a test." He reminded, making Megan and Kaldur alert of any incoming attacks. "Unlike the others, you two were smart enough to stick together, so congratulations on the both of you." He gave them a slow clap.

"Where are the others?" Aqualad demanded although he already had an idea of his friends' fates.

"Currently, everyone else is indisposed, so do not expect any help from them." Joseph informed despite not gaining anything from it. In fact he was being as open as a book. "So you two have a few options: you can attack me both at the same time; you can both escape to try and search for your teammates; one can stay and fight while the other searches; or you can both give up."

Kaldur remained silent, considering all of the options the man offered them and weighted the pros and cons of each one of them. After a few moments of tense silence the atlantean finally said. "Now!" he took out his water bearers and sent a pressurized blast of water towards the Fool, while Ms. Martian turned invisible.

Joseph quickly moved out of the way of the blast and waited patiently to see if the Martian girl was going to attacked him using her invisibility. But alas the attacked never came. "So you sent her away while you remain here to fight me?" he quickly figured it out. "I admit that is very brave but also foolishly optimistic." He pointed out waving his finger in a disapproving manner. "Now I can take you out one by one before you can even reach the others."

"I trust her to find the others." Kaldur shot back. "And I trust myself to be enough to buy her the time to do so." He said with a determined look showing no signs of doubt.

Joseph couldn't help but smile at the young man. "You got guts, I like that!" he cracked his knuckles in preparation. "I'll be honest when I read the files about you, I got excited." He then cracked his neck and shoulders. "Atleantean Sorcery, Electricity Generation, Hydrokinesis, not to mention your atlantean attributes like strength and durability." He smirked as he listed each one of the boy's talents. "Out of everyone in the team, you are by far the best-rounded."

"I am flattered by your words." Kaldur didn't let the praise he was receiving get up to his head. He suspected Joseph was telling him this to let him know that the man knew and was ready for anything he could dish out.

"It is fitting don't you think?" Joseph continued with a playful smile, he really was looking forward for this. "You who can control the water around you just like I control the sand under my feet; dishing it out here on the beach; each on our preferred environment."

"I see your point. I agree that it is a very interesting set-up for our encounter." Aqualad couldn't help but agree that it was almost perfect.

"Now, come and show me why Aquaman chose you as his protégée." He said as he summoned from his arm several purple colored vines with thorns on them. "Hermit Purple!"

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Back on the main hall inside of Mount Justice, Red Tornado watch the match between the Fool and Aqualad begin, and observed with detail everything the cameras managed to capture.

Suddenly a synthesized voice echoed throughout the hall announcing the arrival of the Dark Knight. Batman stepped out of the teleported and walked towards the red clad hero without a greeting from either of them towards the other.

"How is the team doing?" Batman went straight to the point.

"It is yielding interesting results." The android informed with as much emotion as he could muster which was very little. "Everything is being recorder so it can be reviewed later by you and other members of the league."

"Whatever the results may be, I do trust the Fool to make a fair judgment in the team's abilities." Though they didn't see eye to eye in many things, Batman had chosen him to supervise and help train the team for a reason.

"Also I was instructed by the Fool to deliver you a message in the eventuality that a certain set of circumstances regarding Robin were fulfilled." Red to tornado informed the Dark Knight making him slightly curious and wary ay the same time. "The message is and a quote directly: " _Be proud of The Boy Wonder, he got a face full of my fart gas just like you._ " That's all."

Red tornado relayed unperturbed by the tone and content of the message. Batman didn't know if it made it better or worse since he couldn't read any reaction from the Android and therefore what was passing through that brain of his. What he did know was that he was going to have a LONG talk with the Fool and Robin when all of this was over. Dick needed to learn to not get surprised by a dog flying towards his face.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Kaldur had to admit that deep down he found this battle with The Fool to be very stimulating. No matter how he attacked, the man would retaliate and then would try and pull a fast one on him, but he wouldn't let him and had to response in turn.

Aqualad would use his water bearers to shot torrents of water at Joseph and the man would create a Sand Wall and then he would send that wall towards him in retaliation, trying to crush him in a sandy tidal wave.

Joseph would create sand pillars to try and trap him and he would call upon water to form swords to cut through the sand and escape to try and engage in close quarters combat, only to evade the purple vines Joseph called Hermit Purple. And no matter how many vines the atlantean cut with his water swords, they kept growing back and attacking.

The battle continued like that, each time was an exchange that put to the test their offensive and defensive skills. Water and Sand flew everywhere, clashing against one and other for dominance. And despite the overabundance of water on Aqualad's favor, it didn't mean he had the upper hand, because the fool would control the wet heavy sand making it dry again.

Sand wasn't the only thing he had to watch out for, he also evaded those purple vines that sprigged from Joseph's arms and attacked liked they had will on their own.

The atlantean was being pushed to the limits of what he could do both physically and mentally. And thought he didn't say it, he was having fun battling with the man.

But all fun must come to an end, and that end came when Joseph raised one of his hands and called out for a time out. "As much as I've been enjoying this fight with you Kaldur, I think we should put an end to it with our next move."

Aqualad stopped and lowerd his guard for know, indicating he was listening to him. "What do you mean?" Kaldur asked while mentally thanking him for the small break.

"I mean that we both put our all in the next attack and see who comes up victorious." A figuratively test of strength with their powers over Sand and Water.

"Is not that very impractical?" I mean, this wasn't a Japanese anime were they could just shoot energy beams to each other and scream really loud the names of their attacks with little to no regard to everything around them.

"Very!" Joseph agreed with a silly smirk, "You could say it is something only a Fool would do." He laughed at his own little joke. "But it would be a fun way to end this."

"I concur." Besides, if they continue on like this Aqualad knew he would lose. But if he agreed to this, then it would leave the Fool both exhausted and vulnerable for Ms. Martian and whomever she managed to find to defeat him and finish this test. "Let's do this, then."

"Let's!"

Aqualad gathered all of the strength he had left and all the water he could muster. On the opposite side, Joseph called upon his remaining strength and commanded the sand readying it for a clash of epic.

After a whole minute of gathering their power, they finally released it and the subsequent clash created a shock wave that echoed in the distance all the way towards where Ms. Martian currently was, still in the search of her fellow teammates.

"Aqualad…" She tried to contact him to see if he was alright but he was out of her reach. "I hope he's okay…"

Aqualad ended up on his back to the ground looking up the sky above. While the rising tide splashed and washed upon him. "I lost…" He said feeling really drained and sore.

"Yeah, but you got few good hits in though…especially that last one." Joseph said standing over the boy with the entire left side of his body missing and slowly falling apart as sand.

"You were a sand construct all along…" Meaning that his battle had been nothing but pointless.

"Don't feel discouraged Kaldur, you did an incredible job lasting so long against me." Joseph said reassuringly hoping to cheer the boy up. "Like I said before, out of everyone on the team you are the best-rounded in terms of skill set and powers, but what shines the most about you is your inner-strength and resolve; your proud soul if you will."

"Proud…soul…?"

"You are like the Hermit of the Mountain, Aqualad." Joseph stated before he elaborated further. "Thanks to all the trials and challenges you had faced in your life you had managed to climb part of the mountain of life but since you are still young and your life as a hero has barely started and there are still many trials and obstacles to come you are still far from the top. But once you reach it, you will attain both great wisdom and great spiritual growth, which you'll be then ready to share them with others."

Seeing the look of confusion on the boy's face he decided to explain what it all meant.

"What it means is that you already half-way there into becoming both a great hero and a wise man, all that you lack right now is the experience that will nurture your mind and spirit into achieving great heights in your life and your chosen career as a hero."

Having cleared that out, Aqualad couldn't help but feel flattered. "Thank you for your kind words."

"Just keep in mind that those that follow the path of the Hermit sometimes become isolated from their friends and family on their journey for wisdom believing that the others are dragging them down with them; that's a great blunder on their part, because what use is wisdom if there isn't anyone you can share them with?"

"What point is there in victory if there is no one else to celebrate it with?" Aqualad recalled a similar proverb that exemplified what Joseph was saying.

"That is exactly it, Kaldur." Joseph said with a laugh before he finally began to crumble away into sand. "Now if you excuse me, I have one more lesson to impart."

It was then when Kaldur realized what this test was really about.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

"Why can't I find anyone?" Miss Martian was getting discouraged by the second. If she couldn't find someone then Aqualad's decision to stay behind and fight, would be in vain. "Please, someone, anyone please pick up!"

"You won't find them, I make sure of that." A deep masculine voice said making Ms. Martian turn, surprised that someone had sneaked up on her once more. But this time it wasn't Joseph Joestar. This time it was another man that was as tall as Joseph had been and with a similar muscle build. Also similar to Joseph was this man's face, but his looked much younger and had clean cut. As for his attire, the man was wearing a dark with blue-ish shade trench coat and similarly colored pants, and a strange visored cap that made it difficult to tell where the hat ended and the hair started.

"The Fool." Even with this new appearance, she knew it was him. "Where's Aqualad?"

"Yare Yare daze, don't ask me questions you already know the answer of." The fool said sounding both annoyed and very cold as he fixed that cap of his. "Better ask me something you don't know about."

"Where are the others?" Megan asked making the man sigh again.

"The old man already answered that question back in the beach." He answered even more annoyed. "I told you to ask me about things you didn't know about and you still haven't asked for my name. Good Grief, I thought J'onn would've taught you some manners."

Getting a little red faced both in embarrassment and in slight frustration, Megan made another question. "What is your name?"

"My name is Kujo Jotaro, 17 years old, Japanese, high school student." He introduced himself throwing the Martian girl out of the loop. He looked far too big to be of that age, at least according to what she had learned about humans on her own thanks to television. "Now, it is only you and I that remain; and so far the only one that was remotely competent was Aqualad. You better impress me otherwise you will also fail and be removed from the team."

"Wait a minute." The girl cut in realizing something off about his words. "If everyone besides Kaldur fails doesn't that mean he would be the only member? That doesn't make sense." Otherwise what was the point of trying to for a team in the first place? "Maybe if you've said that the least impressive would be the one to get removed from the team it would make sense, but to remove everyone besides Aqualad is strange! Everything about this has been strange!"

"Maybe I've been lying the whole time and this was in fact a test to see who deserves to become an official part of the League instead of staying on this team." Jotaro revealed to her, explaining away the inconsistency, but the Martian Girl remained skeptical.

"T-that doesn't make sense either!" The Team was formed to work in conjunction with the League for missions the veteran heroes couldn't or weren't allowed to do because of their public image and because it would alert the bad guys working in the shadows. "And even if it were true, why would you reveal to me the real purpose of the test before I even started?"

"To give you a proper chance now that you can't tell any of the others the truth." Jotaro insisted in keeping with the story, which Megan kept rejecting.

"The truth…?" She repeated as if the word was foreign. "The truth is that this has being a ruse this whole time!" It had to be. There was something incredibly fishy going on, and she should've caught it earlier when she couldn't sense anything from Joseph or Jotaro in front of her.

Being able to block mental connections and attacks was one thing but to lack all signs of brain activity was beyond strange. It was bizarre!

"All of this has been a trick, since the beginning." Paradoxically the only thing that made sense was that things didn't make sense. "You are not real, are you?"

"Yare Yare Daze… finally someone noticed it." Jotaro once again fiddled and fixed his cap and crumbled into sand. And from behind a tree the little Boston terrier made his presence known.

"Iggy?"

The small dog barked and then letters appeared on the floor create a message that read: "Connect us."

Using her Telepathy, the girl created a mind connection between her and the dog. " _Iggy…? Can you…?_ "

" _Yes, I can understand you_." Responded Iggy thinking not like a dog but like a human. " _This whole time I've been able to understand you and the others._ "

" _Does that mean you were the Fool this whole time?_ "

" _Yes…and no…_ " The dog answered vaguely. "It is difficult to explain in words, it would be better off if I showed you instead."

"Show me what…?" Megan asked both curious and anxious at the same time.

" _My journey as The Fool._ "

Then Iggy opened his mind to her.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

After Iggy opened his mind to her, Megan was able to see everything in the life of the Boston terrier through his own eyes. And what she had witnessed had been nothing short of bizarre.

A world similar yet very different to the one she know of, and she saw; New York, The Speedwagon Foundation, Stands and Stand Users, Egypt, The Stardust Crusaders, The Gatekeeper from Hell: Pet Shop, Vanilla Ice and finally she saw his death. But that was only the prologue of his story.

Ms. Martian witnessed his awakening into a new world, the one she was familiar with and saw Iggy come to grips and accept the idea of his resurrection into a world were heroes existed in the limelight; with powers similar or beyond those with Stand abilities; followed by the life changing decision of what to do with this new opportunity at life.

What ensued were several days of debauchery and hedonism. But no matter what pleasures Iggy sought after, his nights were haunted by the memories of his time in Egypt, and the pain of the scars and broken bones felt ever so real to him. That is until one fateful night he had been saved from his nightmares by the cries of help of a man being beaten up to death in an alleyway.

Iggy didn't know what came to him, but he ended up saving the life of the man by using his Stand the Fool to beat up the would-be killers, and that night when he went to sleep, the nightmare didn't come. Ever since then, he started hunting down bad people and teaching them a lesson just so he could keep those Nightmares away, and that is how his career as a "hero" started.

Over time, Iggy started to both travel around and using The Fool to create constructs as stand-ins for him, whenever he helped save someone or he needed to go places a dog couldn't. And the figures he used as Stand-ins were the rag-tag group he joined in Egypt; each one of them useful in a variety of way and situations.

But heroics don't go unnoticed for long, and soon Iggy, or better said The Fool, got the attention of the League. Especially from the Dark Knight himself who couldn't find a shred of information about any of Iggy's personas.

It took months for Batman to finally find and track down the Fool, but even then they would slip away from between his fingers; one occasion in particular was when the Fool as Jotaro threw Iggy towards Batman's face, which he ended up catching only to have the dog fart on his face.

After that, it took the caped crusader even more so to finally ask the Martian Manhunter for help. It was thanks to the Martian that they finally were able to locate and corner the Fool, and realized that all this time he had being nothing but Sand and that it was in fact a dog behind it all.

Having no say in the matter, Iggy accepted a meeting with the Justice League and after several hours of discussions and explanations where he didn't revealed information about his previous life and resurrection, the dog accepted to help the League whenever they needed his particular set of skills with the only condition being that the fact that he was a dog could never leak to the outside world.

Iggy worked as an "unofficial" member because to the world at large, he didn't exist, and he preferred it that way. As for missions, Iggy worked very well and form an unlikely friendship with the Question but the Leaguer that he most respected was J'onn J'onnz.

Megan's uncle helped Iggy deal with his PTSD and the dog confided on the Martian to keep his secrets. Not only that, but since Stand Powers were both manifestations of one's spirit as psychic abilities, J'onn also helped Iggy to expand upon his own abilities and helping it mature.

During his new career as a hero Iggy mostly worked as either back-up or to help scout and infiltrate a variety of secret labs, bases and everything in between. And now when news about the formation of a team dedicated to the sort of missions he mostly worked on, he was offered the opportunity to help train and supervise said team.

And Iggy accepted again with a condition of his own.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Megan was disoriented when all of this was over. She had experienced and learned a lot from the Boston terrier in front of her. But one question burned on the back of her head.

"Why?" she asked. "Why confide all of this to me?"

" _Because just like with your Uncle J'onn, you are the only one who could full understand my life._ " Iggy said. " _Unlike the others on the team, you are the only one who can take my words and lessons to heart even if they come from a dog_."

Megan remembered from some of his memories, how some members of the League would treat him like an animal or a pet instead of a fellow hero. Even if it wasn't done with malice or ill-intent, their preconceived opinions and notions of him always made him feel less.

The few ones who could see past his appearance completely were the Martian Manhunter, The Question, Superman, Batman, Red Tornado and the Green Lanterns, yes including Hal Jordan to a certain extent.

"I trusted you with my secret because you are the Star." The Fool said once again taking the form of Jotaro. "The Star represents renewal, inspiration, serenity and hope." Jotaro pulled out his coat to show her the star-shaped birthmark on his neck which the Original Jotaro on Iggy's previous life also had. "You shall bear this symbol of Hope."

"I-I don't know…" Megan answered nervously, "What if you are wrong? W-what if I'm not the right one?"

"I didn't choose you to bear the symbol of the star, the Star chose you." Jotaro said putting his coat back on. "You have endured life's challenges and have been through a difficult time; that is why you sneaked into your Uncle's ship and came to Earth, right?"

Megan couldn't help put gasped, surprised that Iggy knew about that. But he couldn't possibly know that she was…

"It is difficult being so different than the others, is it not?" Jotaro lamented, sharing the sentiment. "To be treated as less or as foreign for being born the way you are, is a harsh reality of life."

"H-How... do you k-know…?" Megan stuttered feeling really exposed right now.

"Even though you can rearrange your body and cells, some things cannot be changed." Jotaro said before he pointed at Iggy. "My nose is very sensitive, and much stronger than your average dog. I was able to tell you are a different type of Martian than your Uncle J'onn." At this point the girl was trembling, but this was something that needed to be said. "You are a White Martian."

Megan fell to her knees and started to cry, having her deepest secret brought up to the open was too much to bear. But then she felt Iggy walked up to her and put a paw on her knee in an attempt to comfort her.

"You can touch my paw pads if you want, they are very soft and feel very nice." Jotaro said with a straight face. That is why his ridiculous words and his deadpan delivery caused the crying girl to stop for a bit. "The awesomeness of soft paw pads will brighten your day." That sentence coming from a tough looking guy like Jotaro, made Miss Martian to stop crying and instead laughed.

"Yare Yare daze… are you feeling better now?"

"A bit…" She girl said after a small sniffle. Iggy then placed his head on the Megan's thigh asking to be pet, which she kindly did and that calmed her even more. "Are you gonna tell the others?"

"No." He answered bluntly. "That's your secret to tell, not mine. And I'll appreciate if you offered me the same courtesy regarding what you saw about my past."

"Of course." Megan nodded in understanding, happily accepting to guard his secrets too. But know that she knew he was in the know about her true nature, she couldn't help but ask. "Are you not bothered by me being a White Martian?"

"Good Grief, what did I tell you about asking questions that you already know the answer for?" Jotaro scratched the back of his head sounding exasperated. "You should know by now that I couldn't care less about any of that." Was she not inside of his head a few minutes ago or what?

"Sorry…" She apologized bashfully.

"As I was saying…" He began again after a sigh, "As the Star, you know how harsh life can really be, and the natural reactions of hatred, envy, bitterness, and revenge have burned themselves out." Quite the emotional achievement and growth on her part. "You may have escaped home, but not because out of fear, but out of hope! You came to earth and you are now opening yourself to heal; you are changing yourself from the old you to the new you, and in doing this you are bringing about a new perspective on life."

Megan nodded. She was marveled by how much a card could tell about a person's past, present and future. Maybe she too would look into this art of Divination.

"The Star card also indicates a generous spirit." Jotaro then smiled a bit. "For what I seen so far and what I heard from your Uncle J'onn, I can tell you have a big heart willing to share happiness and wealth with others and help transform their own lives." Meaning she could befriend just about anyone and be there for them. "But remember to guard your heart as well, otherwise your spirit could become distorted and instead of hope you will feel despair and you'll bestow it to others as well. So be careful."

"I think I understand." Megan said picking herself off the ground and stood proud. "I am honored to bare the symbol of the Star." And to show her commitment she made a star shaped mark appeared on the back of her neck exactly as the one Jotaro had. "Please teach me how to become the Star I'm meant to be."

"Yare Yare daze…" Jotaro smirked very glad to see so much determination from the girl. "I guess it is time has run out and we should go get the rest of the Team, and tell them the news."

"Does that mean we all passed?" She asked hopefully, as Iggy then jumped and grabbed unto her shoulder and barked with a nod confirming the good news. "I'm happy no one has to leave the team."

"Speaking of the Team… have you and the others talked about how to call yourselves?" Jotaro asked. If they wanted to work well as a team, a good name was essential to create team unity. Even if it was only know to them and no one else.

"We haven't talked about it yet…" Heck they have yet to discuss how should be team leader as well. "But I think there's something we can call ourselves that would fit nicely.

"Oh? And what is it?" The Fool asked curiously, but he had a pretty good guess what name she had chosen.

"We can be the New Stardust Crusaders." In honor of Iggy's past and the companions that he gave his previous life for.

"I think that fits perfectly."

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we jump from Gravity Falls to Young Justice; a series that unfortunately had a very troubled life-span on the air.  
> As always, I am open to suggestion as to where or what series do you want to see Iggy in next. Do not be afraid to speak your mind.
> 
> BTW this was 3 separate chapters, now combined into one long chapter.


	4. RWBY

Iggy was in a bad mood.

It had been days after his miraculous resurrection, and had to forgo the idea of coming to terms with the ideas of death, life and second changes, because he had awoken in the middle of god-knows where in the middle of a forest.

Being an animal with not only great directional and survival skills, not to mention a Stand User, Iggy thought he wouldn't have a problem getting out of this place and find the nearest human settlement so he could know exactly where the hell he was. That is, if there were any humans to begin with.

What made him question the existence of humans in the first place? Well, because this forest was crawling with strange black creatures that he had never seen or heard of before. Some of these strange creatures had the shape of regular animals, but they were anything but normal. They all share the same weird black and white motif with piercing red eyes, and after watching them from afar, he could tell they were hostile in nature, always ready to attack.

Thanks to his Stand ability to control dirt and sand, Iggy managed to kill several of these creatures with the intent of studying them or if he was particularly hungry, take a bite out of them; sure it would be nasty, but at least he wouldn't starve to death. Yet both plans were shot down when the creatures turned into smoke after being killed.

After surviving several days in this monster infested forest, Iggy began pondering the possibility of this place being some sort of "afterlife", probably a punishment for all of his misdeeds in his previous life. Then again, if that was the case then it opened a whole can of worms with no easy to answer questions like: what would happen if he were to die again in his place?

After a while he'd forgone thinking about the topic any deeper. The only thing that mattered was to survive and find a way out of this forsaken forest.

Iggy walked south, trying to leave behind the dense part of the forest where the black creatures gathered, not wanting to get into unnecessary fights and waste his energy. Wandering around, keeping all of his senses active in case of any "predators", Iggy's nose finally caught a whiff of a familiar scent: Human.

So there were Humans in this place after all!

The Boston terrier ran through the forest, expertly zigzagging around the trees and towards the origin of the smell hoping to find a human that could guide him to any settlement. Heck, he would play up the dumb mutt act just so he could get out of his horrid place.

When he arrived at the place, Iggy was surprised with the human he had found. Not because of his appearance or anything, but for the situation he was currently in.

The human was a teenager with blond hair wearing some sort of light armored white chest plate and shoulder armor over a black hoodie, and blue pants; and he was currently up stuck on a tree, with a javelin keeping him pinned on the trunk.

How in the hell did this kid got stuck that way, he had no idea, but Iggy wasn't going to look a gift horse on the mouth. If this blonde was here, then that means there were others nearby, meaning that there should be a settlement too where there was actual food and clean water; not the trash he had to eat to survive this far.

"How am I supposed to get down from here?" The boy on the tree whined clearly anxious, so far he hadn't noticed Iggy's presence, too worried about his current situation.

' _Good question_.' Iggy thought to himself. He could help the boy down and claim his service in exchange for the help, but to do so would mean to reveal his Stand, The Fool's powers. Sure, he was in desperate need to get out of the forest, but showing off his powers could land him in serious problems, if they were to be divulged and then have some scientist assh*le wanting to do experiments on him or even cut him open.

Thankfully, Iggy didn't have to do anything because not so long after, he sensed another human approaching. Quickly he hid behind a tree and observed the situation.

"Jaune?" A female voice called out, probably for the boy pinned on the tree by the javelin. This new persona was a girl in her teenage years, with very long red hair styled in a pony tail. She too was wearing armor and had a shield hanging on her back. If Iggy had to sum up her appearance he would be incline to say that the red head girl looked like some kind of Amazon warrior.

"Do you have any spots left on your team?" The red head asked somewhat playfully, smiling up to the boy, who didn't find the situation all that humorous.

"Very funny…"Both teens remained quiet, looking to each other for a few seconds before the blonde finally said. "Could you please help me down, Pyrrha?"

"Of course."

' _Uh, interesting_.' Iggy thought as he observed the warrior-looking girl, Pyrrha help the blond, Jaune, down from the tree. Despite being outfitted to fight, these two weren't enemies and a fight was unlikely to break out between the two. And from what little he had seen of the both of them, it was improbable that they would attack him if he made his presence known. Despite this, the fact that these two were carrying armor and weapons meant that they were prepared to fight; either with the monsters in the forest or with other humans Iggy did not know. But what he did know was that if he followed them, he would get involved in battle.

Now, did he follow them and risk been caught in a fight or would he continue on alone leaving the two behind on their own devices. After days in this place, the risk of battle wasn't so unpleasant in comparison.

So, having come to a decision, Iggy stepped out from his hiding place and barked to get the attention of the teens after Jaune was finally down the tree.

"Hey look, a dog." The boy Jaune exclaimed in cheerful surprise. "Hello little doggy!" He knelt down to pet the approaching dog.

"Jaune, be careful." Pyrrha warned looking at the white and black dog with slight suspicion.

"What is there to be careful about?" the boy waved off unworried as he continued to pet the animal. "Look he is so playful." He started scratching it behind the ears and talked to it in a bay voice. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?"

Meanwhile Iggy endured the humiliation, by reminding himself that this blond idiot was his way out of this place.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha call out once more sounding like a mother warning a child not to do something. "What would a dog be doing in this place?" Not only this place had Creatures of Grimm roaming around, but the forest was no place for a dog that small to inhabit it.

"I don't know… perhaps he got lost?" The blond offered. "It probably got separated from its owner. Maybe he belongs to a Huntsman?"

"But no one is supposed to be in this place besides us." The girl pointed out. "The Emerald Forest should be off limits to anyone besides the Faculty and us Students from Beacon, otherwise they would interfere with the initiation." Meaning the dog couldn't belong to a Huntsman on a mission.

"Maybe this dog is what we were supposed to find?" Jaune tried again but despite his faulty logic, Pyrrha didn't hold that against him and reminded him why that couldn't be.

"Professor Ozpin said the relics were in a temple up north. I don't think a dog counts as a relic."

"Sorry I even opened my mouth…" Jaune said crestfallen. Once again he made a fool of himself by saying the wrong thing.

"It's okay Jaune. There is no need to feel down…" The redhead tried to cheer him up. And as the two of them talked, Iggy reviewed in his mind what he had learned.

So the infernal forest he had been stuck at for the last days was called the Emerald Forest; and these two teens, Pyrrha and Jaune, came here with a mission to find a relic from a temple that was given to them by a guy they called Professor Ozpin, whom judged by the name, belonged to a place called Beacon, probably some sort of school that this two teens belonged too; a school for Huntsmen, perhaps? These two with their armor and weapons did look like they were prepared to hunt something; the black creatures living in the forest was the most likely prey.

Ok, so far so good. Now all that Iggy needed to do was find this Beacon School and once there he could formulate a plan as to where to go next.

"I mean… couldn't we take it with us?" Jaune asked looking somewhat worried. "Like you said, this place has Grimm running around; it can't be safe for the little guy."

"Jaune, Creatures of Grimm do not attack animals, they only attack both Humans and Faunus." The girl said making Iggy's ears perked a bit.

So the creatures living in the forest are called Grimm and according to this girl, who looked like she knew about what she was saying, these creatures didn't attack animals like him, only humans and whatever the heck Faunus were. But the strange thing was that these creatures did attack him despite Iggy being a dog. Was this girl hugely mistaken or was Iggy attacked because he was different? Perhaps his superior intelligence or maybe his Stand caused the Grimm to attack him like he was also human. He would have to look up on that at a later date. Now, Iggy had to convince these two to take him along so he could reach Beacon.

"Look Pyrrha, see how sad it looks? It wants to come along with us!" Jaune said picking up Iggy and shoving the dog right in front of the girl, while Iggy put up his best sad puppy dog eyes and sad moans.

"I guess…it is ok."Although the dog wasn't THAT cute, she did feel sympathy for it, maybe it did belong to someone from Beacon? So the honest thing to do was to bring it back with them to find its owner. That and this was something Jaune apparently really wanted to do.

"Thanks Pyrrah, you are really the best." Jaune said while giving her a big smile before he brought Iggy towards him and start cooing. "Isn't she the best?" He asked the dog and then made it move one of his paws as he pretended to answer as the dog. " _Yes she is, yes she is_."

Pyrrah couldn't help but smile at the small scene.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Twenty minutes later, the duo and the dog were still walking up North in search for the Temple where their objective was. Iggy was somewhat reluctant to trek back deeper into the forest where the creatures of Grimm were, but if he wanted to leave out of this place, then he had to help them find their relic.

Suddenly, the sounds of shot being fired resounded at a distance signifying there was a fight going on.

"Gunfire…It seems some of our comrades have encounter the enemy." Pyrrha who was walking point in front of them noted without much worry. "We better move on, there could be Grimm nearby." She wasn't as callous as to leave their comrades behind, but she was on a mission and she knew whoever was fighting was surely capable of handing a battle on their own.

Neither Jaune or Iggy raised an objection towards Pyrrha's decision and they continued on. That is until the blonde was smacked on the face by a tree branch courtesy of the red head leading them.

"Jaune! I'm sorry." The red head apologized to the boy on the ground. Meanwhile Iggy wondered if this boy was actually capable of fighting anything. I mean, he was knocked down by a tree branch.

"It's okay… just a scratch." He tried to play it off as nothing but the cut on his face really stung. Hey, at least he wasn't crying.

"Why didn't you activate your aura?" Pyrrha asked much to the boy's and dog's confusion.

"Huh?"

Huh? Indeed. Iggy's ears perked paying attention to gather as much information as he could about this place.

After Jaune tried to play off his ignorance about the subject and dodging the question, Pyrrha explained to Jaune what Aura actually was. "Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?"

That caught Iggy's interest; if that the girl was saying was true then this Aura was something very akin to a Stand. Could it be that she was a Stand User?

"With practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals."

Boy, that did sounded like a Stand. Since Iggy and Pet Shop were able to manifest their powers. Although what intrigued the dog was the fact that she said "everyone" had Aura. As far as Iggy knew, only a rare few were able to use Stands. Maybe this Aura thing was a different thing altogether?

"What about monsters?" Jaune asked referring to the creatures of Grimm.

"No." Pyrrha answered solemnly. "The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity. They are the darkness, and we are the light."

"Right, that's why we fight them!"

"It's not about why; it's about knowing. Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has some of both. By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura. You protect yourself and your soul when fighting."

"It's like a force field!" Juane said enthusiastically, having understood what Pyrrha was talking about.

"Yes, if you want to look at it that way." There was much more than that, but the girl didn't want to bring the boy's cheer down. Then she walked up to the boy and touched the side of his head. "Now, close your eyes and concentrate."

"Um Okay…"

Iggy watched them stood there one in front of the other, wondering what the heck was going on, but then he saw the two teens start glowing; Pyrrha in in feint red and Jaune in bright white. After a short while, the girl finally stopped glowing looking tired, while Jaune just kept on glowing looking concerned.

"Pyrrha…?"

"It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own." She watched with a smile as the cut on Jaune's face faded away as if it had never being there in the first place. "You have a lot of it."

While the two were sharing their moment, Iggy took the time to finally come to terms with the fact that he was in a strange world different than his own. Strange Forests, Creatures of Grimm, Huntsmen, and now Aura; everything was so alien to him and he knew that he didn't belong in this place. But what could he do? It is not like he knew how he got here in the first place and he highly doubted these people had a way to send back either.

All he could do for now, was to survive.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

* * *

 

Iggy hated teenagers.

He never realized this before, since to him humans were almost the same. Before he rarely paid any attention to human age. To him there were either Children or Adults; which was weird since after thinking about it, Jotaro and Kakyoin were actually teenagers, despite never thinking of them as such. To him those two were adults, not because of their large frames, but for their attitude and maturity.

But after living in Beacon Academy for some time now, he came to the realization that he hated the humans on the transitional state known as adolescence.

Never before had he cursed his incredible sense of smell, it was a useful tool for survival after all. Yet now that he lived surrounded by teenagers, he was constantly bombarded by the smell of their hormones and their developing bodies. For dog heaven sake, the back alleys in the worst neighborhoods of New York didn't smell as pungent as a whiff of the odor produced by adolescent's Emotional Issues.

Who in their right mind takes a bunch of hormonal kids, trains them in combat for dangerous situations and then puts them in the same building to live together in co-ed dorms and rooms!? It was a miracle that there wasn't a large amount of pregnancies going around with all the "fooling around" he managed to unwillingly hear, see and even smell.

Iggy wanted nothing more than to leave this hellish place behind; going back to fighting for his life lost in the middle of nowhere against creatures of Grimm sounded more and more appealing as time went on. Even so, he was stuck in the Academy and worst of it all, he was stuck with that idiot blond Jaune.

All because he had revealed his powers in front of Pyrrha.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

_"_ _Think this is it?" Jaune asked as he looked at a cave entrance that emanated an ominous feeling that went undetected by the blond._

**ゴ** **ゴ** **ゴ** **ゴゴ** **ゴ** **ゴ** **ゴゴ** **ゴ** **ゴ** **ゴゴ** **ゴ** **ゴ** **ゴ**

'Is this guy serious?' _Iggy couldn't help but wonder about the boy's lack of awareness. Even if the cave wasn't emitting Japanese onomatopoeia for a menacing feeling, the idea of going inside a dark damp cave in a forest crawling with monsters was moronic at best._

_"_ _I don't know…" Pyrrha said cautiously eying the entrance._

'At least she has some awareness.' _It didn't take superior intelligence to notice that the red head was far more capable as an explorer that the blond blockhead._

_"_ _Look, I'll make a torch and then we can explore the cave." He offered sounding happy that he could do something for the team._

'Okay, this is the part where you shot down his idea for being too stupid and take command.'

_"_ _If you think that's for the best."Pyrrha said making Jaune happy while crushing poor Iggy's expectations._

**_"_ ** **_You second rate Amazon!"_ ** _He barked at the red head._ _**"I thought you were smart!"** _ _Alas, Iggy's rant went unnoticed since nobody could understand him, and after Jaune was done with his makeshift torch, they made their way inside the cave._

_It didn't take long before Pyrrha finally came back to her senses and said. "I don't think this is it." Noticing how dark everything was getting even with a torch._

_"_ _Pyrrha, I made the torch. Could you at least humor me for maybe 5 more feet?" Jaune said somewhat offended despite knowing what he was doing had been a waste of time since the beginning._

'What you are doing is wrong, you know it's wrong, but you are gonna do it anyways.' _Iggy sighed in frustration. There was a fine line between pride and stupidity and Jaune had crossed that line for miles and never once looked back._ 'The only good thing I seen you do is that torch.'

_But even that the blonde managed to screw up because a few feet later he stumbled and tripped dropping the torch into a puddle on the ground turning off the fire and their only light source._

**"** **_God dammit Jaune, you suck_ ** **!"** _Seriously, at least Polnareff was at least helpful in a fight despite his many screw-ups outside of them._

_Regardless of his barks, Iggy was ignored by the two teens in favor of remaining calm and adjusting their eyes to the sudden lack of light._

_"_ _Do you feel that?" Pyrrha asked as Jaune stood up from the ground, wet from the puddle he landed on._

_"_ _Soul crushing regret…?"_

_"_ _No, it's…warm."_

_Jaune remained quiet and an awkward silence formed between the two. It would've lasted much longer had it not being for Iggy who barked for them to get a move on._

_"_ _I think we should continue…"_

_"_ _Sure…"_

_Then the two teens proceeded to walk further into the cave._

_"_ _Wait, no!" Iggy barked again. "Don't go further in! God dammit!" He was really regretting coming along with these two. Jaune was an idiot and Pyrrha was too lenient with the blockhead! As he caught up with them, Iggy finally noticed a strange smell coming from the darkness._

'Oh, no!'

_Then from the darkness a light appeared, attracting the teens like moth to a flame._

_"_ _That's the relic!" Jaune said excited as he tried to snatch said relic on for the thing to move away from his grasp. "Hey! Bad Relic." He admonished as he tried again but the 'relic' move too. Ignoring both Pyrrha's pleads to stop and Iggy's barks of warning, Jaune jumped and grabbed the relic which lifted him off his feet._

_"_ _Jaune…?" The read head said worried for her companion as several small red orbs turned on lighting up the cave, showing a giant grimm hissing at them._

_The scream of terror that ensued from Jaune was so high pitched that everyone who managed to hear it from a distance thought it belonged to a girl in trouble._

_In a blink of an eye both Iggy and Pyrrha were out of the cave followed by the giant Scorpion Grimm that still had Jaune grabbed on its stinger._

'How in the hell is something so big inside a tiny cave!?' _Iggy wondered. The entrance was big enough for the teens to enter and traverse, but the scorpion grimm was far too big for said entrance. The only explanation that seems logical is that on the over side of the cave there was a far bigger entrance for the scorpion to use. But there wasn't enough time to stop and think further because Jaune was still in trouble._

_"_ _Pyrrha!" Jaune cried in desperation hoping to be saved. "This is not a relic! It's not! Do something!" it seriously looked like he was about to cry tears as he pleaded for help._

_The warrior girl with weapon in hand tried to come up with a plan to save Jaune from the Grimm, but first she needed him to remain calm. "Jaune! Whatever you do, do not let – "But the warning came a little too late because the Grimm moved his tail launch the blond away into the distance._

"Go." She finished lamely watching her partner fly away.

**_"_ ** **_Move, you idiot!"_ ** _Iggy barked just in time for Pyrrha to turn back and avoid the claw of the giant scorpion._

_The large creature of Grimm continued its attack against the invaders of its cave, and Iggy got to finally see how much of a capable warrior the red head girl really was when she dodged, blocked and parried the scorpion's attacks._

'She does know how to fight. _' If only she had taken charge from the beginning instead of following that blond blockhead lead, they wouldn't be in this situation._

_Iggy's thoughts on the fight were interrupted when Pyrrha dodged out of the scorpion's way to "rescue" him. "We need to get out of here and find Jaune!" She said out-loud as she crouched down to pick him up and make their escape._

'Why do humans feel the need to talk to animals even when they know they cannot talk back or even understand?' _Of course he could understand what she was saying, but the redhead didn't know that. So why even bother?_

_Once again any and all contemplation stop to a halt when Iggy noticed the Scorpion was ready to attack once more, while the red head girl was in no position to block or even dodge. Moving out of instinct Iggy jumped forward and called out his stand._

_"_ _**The Fool!** _ _" He barked commanding the ground underneath the scorpion into becoming spikes that shot upwards, impaling the underbelly of the creature and lifted it up the ground where it remained unable to escape. The scorpion grimm struggled to break free but after a while it ended up dying from blood loss and exhaustion._

_"_ _Did…did you…?" Pyrrha looked at the small dog with wide eyes unable comprehend what she was seeing. She had heard cases of animals with the ability to use aura, but never something like this._

'Semblance. This dog has a semblance!'

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

After finally making it out of the forest, Pyrrha informed everyone of what Iggy was capable off. And despite trying to play dumb, Iggy's actions were in fact recorded by secret cameras that were over the forest to monitor the students during their initiation exam.

Hearing the Headmaster of the Academy discuss the probability of being sent to some research lab to look upon his "semblance" was nerve-breaking, since Iggy wasn't sure if he would be able to make his escape after witnessing what the people of this world were capable of. If a bunch of kids fighting a giant crow put a lot of stand users to shame, then imagine how strong the adults were.

Salvation came in the form of Jaune, who had took a liking for Iggy, and appealed against sending the dog away. He proposed to take care of Iggy and in exchange he would report anything he found out about its semblance.

It took some convincing, but in the end Ozpin accepted and Iggy became the unofficial fifth member of Team JNPR, which consisted of Jaune, Pyrrha, a guy and a girl named Ren and Nora.

How much he regretted not being sent to those labs.

Because now he was stuck living with not only JNPR, but also he had to bear a team friend of theirs, Team RWBY.

And boy, oh boy, each and every single one of them really got on his poor nerves. Thankfully Iggy didn't need to spend much time with every one of them. In fact he spent much of his time with Jaune since the blonde was the one with the responsibility to take care of him.

Jaune was a bumbling idiot with very little combat skill or prowess, and worst of all a bundle of uncontrollable hormones and prone to self-pity and self-doubt. How he managed to be named leader of his team Iggy had no clue, but in his unheard opinion, he really shouldn't be. The only redeeming thing about the blond was that he liked dogs and really tried to his best to "take care" of him. Allowing Iggy to eat human food instead of canned dog food really earned him a few points.

Unfortunately, any good will Iggy had for Jaune was slowly diminishing as of late. The cause?

A dance party.

A school that teaches how to fight monsters was having a f*cking dance. If the usual hormones and emotional issues on the air wasn't enough, this social event was bringing everything into an all time high.

Things could only end badly.

"So buddy, how did you like it?" Jaune asked Iggy who, unknown to the blond, for the last few hours had been busy with its own thoughts trying to tune out everything around him. Why? Because Jaune had been practicing his guitar skills to try and compose something so he could invite a girl to the dance.

Iggy, who hadn't been paying attention, just barked halfheartedly which Jaune interpreted how he wanted it.

"Do you think Weiss would like it too?"

The response? Another bark.

"Thanks buddy!" Jaune smiled, making Iggy's eye roll to the side. "This will surely surprise her!" And with great confidence he strode with his guitar to serenade the girl and invite her to the dance.

The Boston terrier couldn't fathom what the blond saw on the Ice Queen known as Weiss Schnee.

God, he could still remember the day he were officially introduced to her and the rest of Team RWBY.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

_"_ _So I want you all to meet the fifth member of Team JNPR, Iggy!" Jaune announced all too happy with the chance to show him off to his friends and teammates. For this occasion, they held the event inside of JNPR's dorm room._

_"_ _He is so cute!" The first to react was Ruby who snatched the poor dog from Jaune's hands. "Who's a cutie? You're the cutie!" She cradled him and talked to Iggy as if it was a baby, much to the canine's chagrin. Even more so when Nora and Yang also joined in._

_"_ _Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You are!"_

_"_ _He is kind of ugly, but in a cute way."_

_"_ _So why Iggy?" Lie Ren, the only other male in the room asked Jaune as the girls fawned over said dog._

_"_ _I don't know. It just came up to me." Unknown to him, Iggy had used his Stand to "whisper" his name into the boy's ear while he slept and implanted the name into his subconscious. Iggy would be dammed if he let himself be renamed something stupid or generic like: Rocky or Barkley._

_"_ _You don't like it?" Jaune looked at Ren worried about his "decision"._

_"_ _I think it fits." Ren clarified and said no more about the issue as the two of them turned back to look at Ruby shoving Iggy towards Blake's face._

_"_ _Here, don't you want to pet him?" Ruby looked at her sister's partner expectantly hoping she too joined in the fun. To her disappointment, Blake reeled back instead._

_"_ _Please… no."_

_"_ _Why not?" Ruby asked innocently as she kept trying to push the dog unto her._

_"_ _I'm not very fond of dogs." Blake answered putting up her hands in front of her. "I had bad experiences with dogs before." She added quickly hoping this was enough of an explanation and that no follow-up questions would be had. The least she wanted was for anyone to find out her "secret"._

_"_ _Really?" the young leader look deflated putting up her version of sad puppy dog eyes._

_"_ _It's not like a hate them!" Too much, she added mentally. "It's just… I don't like to be so close to one." As she said this, she managed to catch a strange look on the dog's face._

_Iggy had a displeased look of annoyance on his face, which shifted into a look of realization and finally settled into an evil looking grin. As if it knew some important secret about her._

_'_ _**Tonight. YOU!** _ _' a deep and dry masculine voice menacingly said as if someone had been whispering right on her "other" ears. This sent shiver down Blake's spine and she couldn't help but to step back in fright._

_"_ _Hey guys? What do you think it means by_ 'Tonight. Me' _?" She looked around hoping for some answers but all she got were strange looks. "Like it's threatening me or something."_

_"_ _What are you talking about, Blake?" Yang was the first to ask, looking at her as if there was something wrong._

_"_ _The dog. Iggy." She was sure the threat came from it._

_"_ _Blake, it's just a dog." Weiss pointed out. She too was looking at her as if she was acting crazy._

_'_ _**Yes. I'm just a dog!** _ _'_

_"_ _Didn't Pyrrha say it had a semblance?" Blake was quick to remind._

_"_ _Yes, but that doesn't mean it can also talk. I mean, I don't think he can." Jaune said, silently wondering how cool it would be if a dog could also talk._

_'_ _**You should listen to your friends Kitty Cat** _ _.' The voice that apparently only she could hear said just as the dog gave her a mischievous look._

_"…"_ _She didn't say anything, she refuse to react, but deep down Blake knew she really wasn't going to like Iggy._

_"_ _So Weiss, do you want to pet him?" Ruby quickly moved on from Blake and towards her own partner._

_"_ _Please keep it away from me." The heiress too took a step back away. Although she liked dogs in general, this one just wasn't cute or regal in her opinion. "I don't want any of its slobber on my clothes."_

'Oh you and I are going to get along so well, aren't we? _' Iggy thought sardonically. If there was anything he hated the most were people who acted all high-and-mighty and looked down on him._ 'You're on my list princess.'

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

A day later after Jaune finished composing his song for Weiss, things went just one would've expected.

Seriously, if the white haired girl wasn't screeching like a banshee she was constantly ignoring or belittling each and every attempt of Jaune to approach her. So what made the bumbling fool so interested in her and why did he think this time would it being different?

And speaking of weird tastes…

"Tell her exactly what you just said. No ridiculous schemes, no pick-up lines, just… be honest." Pyrrha Nikos, the so called Invincible Girl, said as she entered the room while Jaune was having a heart-to-heart with Ren asking for advice after being rejected by Weiss.

"But-"

"Juane, you can't get it wrong if it is the truth." Were her words of encouragement, but Iggy didn't need to use his nose to pick up the emotions she was holding back.

Ok, so the Boston terrier exaggerated when he said that he didn't understand Jaune's attraction to Weiss. The blond was a teenager, a bag of raging hormones and a fool, so it was no surprise that he thought with his penis instead of with his brain. But why in god's earth (or was it Oum's Remenant? ) was Pyrrha pinning for Jaune of all people?

Seriously, what did she see in that guy?

Jaune wasn't strong or even smart. Heck, he shouldn't even be attending this School in the first place! Months ago there was a whole debacle about Jaune being blackmailed by this other guy named Cardin, who discovered that Jaune had falsified his entrance papers and lied his way into attending Beacon. What was the reason he was so outclassed by everyone around him. So why someone like Pyrrha, who was arguably the strongest girl around, was interested in such a foolish fool?

But what bothered Iggy the most was not the mystery of her attraction to Jaune, tut the fact that despite wanting him, she kept quiet about it and was pushing him into pursuing another girl; this in turn caused conflicting emotions inside of Pyrrha and made her reek of Emotional Issues.

Human relationships and mating habits really made no sense to Iggy and infuriated him to no end.

In times like these, the canine would cheer himself up by visiting RWBY's room and mess around with his favorite target since Polneraff, Blake.

Now before anyone accuse Iggy of promoting the stereotype of cats vs dogs, it would be remiss to let you forget that when he was New York's King of the street animals, he had several cats as followers and minions. He had nothing against them or Blake personally. He just loved to mess around with people and since he needed to maintain a low profile while stuck in Beacon, he would grasp at what little he could get and Blake's reactions were always funny even when he did did so little to get them.

Also it didn't hurt that he could use his Stand, The Fool, to "speak" in a low enough frequency that only someone with cat ears could pick up. Making her shiver never got old.

Alas his entertainment was currently on hold, because Blake was in the middle of a crisis involving a criminal known as Roman Torchwick and a terrorist group called The White Fang, which Black had previously been a member of, before quitting and coming to Beacon to become a Huntress. She was obsess by spending her every waking moment to investigate any lead that could help her either stop the White Fang, and honestly Iggy wanted to stay away from all that emotional turmoil until it was finally over.

Just another day and the whole Dance will come to pass, and hopefully things will go back to being less annoying for him.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

So the night of the dance finally came.

And Iggy couldn't be more thrilled by the news that he wasn't forcefully invited to attend. He wasn't even sure if he was even allowed to, be he wasn't complaining. Instead he decided to spend this supposed Memorable Night going around campus and marking his territory.

It should've been an uneventful evening walk had it not being for the unconscious Atlas Soldier on the bushes next to the CCTS Building/Tower.

The Cross Continental Transmit System was, as far as Iggy understood, a communication technology in which allows instantaneous multimedia communication wirelessly over large distances. Sort of like Radio/Television Towers.

' _And there's an unconscious soldier in front of it_.' It didn't take a genius to figure out he was knocked-out by someone wanting to infiltrate the place. For what reason he didn't know but this tower was one of the main four that existed in the whole world; so it was a pretty important building, explaining the soldiers guarding the place.

Peering inside the main lobby Iggy noticed other four soldiers either knocked out and or dead on the floor. And by the lack of collateral damage around he deduce that whoever was responsible had removed of their way rather quickly.

Using his nose to sniff around, Iggy picked up on a foreign smell, most definitely from perpetrator, who had a strange smell of – ' _Ash...?_ ' That was a strange smell indeed, but now that he had it memorized he could track the assaulter with ease. But the issue became…

' _Do I have to?_ '

He didn't like to fight dangerous opponents for no good reason, especially when he gained nothing out of it. And after what happened with Pet Shop, he wasn't eager to try again. It would be so easy to walk away from there and pretend nothing happened. To let others do the job and let him live a carefree life.

Didn't he deserve one? More so than ever before since he had already fought and died. Couldn't he be a bystander instead of a fighter and live his new chance at life in peace? Was it too much to ask for?

" _You aren't a cowardly dog; you are part of the team_." The voice of a fellow Crusader rang inside Iggy's head.

' _Polnareff_ …' If he gave out now, what would the Frenchman think of him? He would've fight and after that he would look down on Iggy for not helping. Polnareff was the sort of fool who risked his life to help others despite the overwhelming odds.

Kinda like Jaune.

' _Goddammit! I'm not going to allow you to look down on me!_ ' Because it would be like being look down upon by the bumbling blond who was his caretaker, and he couldn't have the right to call himself a Crusader anymore.

' _If I don't do something who knows what sort of trouble that blond fool is going to get into._ ' And if something happened to the boy, who knows who would take upon the responsibility of looking after Iggy. Someone who wouldn't slide him Coffee flavored Gum would only add to his every day annoyance on this place.

' _I guess I have an Intruder to catch_.' But before giving chase he was going to need something first.

Sand.

Lots and lots of sand.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

' _Is it too late to back down_?'

Iggy only asked because the scent-trail of the intruder led him directly to one place in particular.

The dance.

_Ugh!_

Of all the places the intruder could've used to blend in, this was the most intelligent and infuriating by far. Not only was it a place that Iggy honestly didn't want to come near off, it was filled with lots of potential casualties and/or hostages, even if these kids were fully capable combatants.

' _Hard to say this, but I think I need help for this_.' He needed someone that could help inform Ozpin and the other members of the faculty and could fight in close quarters without the aid of a weapon. Someone that was tough, and wasn't afraid of anything. But who could…?

Yang.

He needed Yang's help.

Oh he could ask Pyrrha but she was too enthralled dancing with Jaune, who was wearing a white dress for some reason, so he knew better than to try. So Yang was the better option.

The only problem was that he wasn't sure she would be willing to co-operate; especially since she was still pissed after what happened months ago.

_**"** **YOU DAMN DIRTY DOG! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"** _

How was he suppose to know she was going to burst into flames and pursue him all over the school destroying everything on her path just because he happen to take a munch out of her hair? He had the decency of not farting on her face, that should count for something right?

Any way he looked at it Iggy was screwed, unless he approached her without having to reveal it was him. Maybe he could try the same tactic he used back in Egypt to sneak behind Vanilla Ice, and have his stand take on a human form.

' _But I haven't used that in months_.' And even then he only knew how to transform into one person. ' _I hope this works_.'

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

"Just where in the world is Ruby?" Yang looked scanned around hoping to find the petite frame of her little sister, but she was nowhere to be seen. ' _Great, she bailed_.' Thought disappointed. ' _After the hassle that was convincing her to dress up_.' She knew how socially awkward her sister was, so she couldn't entirely blame her, but Yang had hoped that this dance would've help her get out a little more out of her shell.

Yang's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she felt someone tapped her on the shoulder, probably another guy wanting to ask her out to the dance floor. "Sorry, but I'm not in the mood for-" Yet her words got caught on her through when her eyes settled on the person who called for her attention.

"Excuse me, I just wanted to speak with you for a moment." Said the most gorgeous man Yang has ever seen in her life. He was dressed in an elegant tuxedo and looked not much older than her, but what caught her attention was both his impressive frame and looks.

His hair looked as smooth as silk and was gold as gold itself; his strong and burly muscles popped out of his tight fit shirt that made it look like he wasn't wearing anything underneath the jacket! And his voice, so smooth and profound!

It felt like this man was bigger than the world itself. Maybe that's why she audibly gulped and answered with a shaky voice. "Y-Yes…?" She dared not to say more for fear of her mouth and voice would fail mid-way through.

"My name is DIO, and I wish to ask a favor of you, Miss Xiao Long"

Oum, he knew her name! And his, it was a name that sent shivers down her spine. Somehow she knew it was "DIO" with all capitals instead of simply "Dio", it was THAT imposing. Had she not known any self-control, she would've proclaimed him the father of her future children right there and then.

"You can ask me anything…" She said barely above a whisper, enthralled by the sheer beauty of the man known as DIO.

"I don't wish to alarm you, but there's an emergency going on and I need your help." DIO said, the urgency of his voice broke whatever spell Yang had fell under, because now she was focusing more on what he was saying than on his physique.

"Huh…?" Was Yang's oh-so-eloquent response.

"Someone broke into the CCTS Tower and knocked out all of the Atlas Soldiers guarding the place." He quickly told omitting that some of those guys were probably dead. "I need you to discreetly go to Ozpin or Goodwitch and inform them that the intruder is currently inside this building posing as a student."

"Okay…" Yang responded sounding skeptical of all of this. "And why are you telling me this?" Couldn't he just walk up to Ozpin himself?

"Two reasons; One, because I'll try to lead her away from the crowd and confront them, and I'm going to need back-up in standby just in case she overpowers me."

"She?"

"Yes, and she might have accomplices too." It couldn't possibly be a one-man operation; otherwise she would've escaped instead of trying to blend in with the student population. "Two, because I need someone who can fight even without a weapon." Since having others retrieve their weapons into a dance would bring suspicious to them. "You are the only one who can help." That he could think of, but he wasn't going to say that out-loud.

"Really…?" Yang tried her hardest not to blush and turn all red. She even berated herself for acting like a girl that had her first crush. She didn't know how but DIO had that strange effect on her. "I mean, yes! I understand."

"Good, now once you inform Ozpin or Goodwitch, keep your distance and wait for my signal."

"What will that be?"

"Oh! You will know when you see it!"

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Cinder couldn't believe how easy it had been. Even with the unforeseen interference of the scythe-wielding Ruby Rose, she had managed to break effortlessly into the CCTS and left a little "surprise" for when the invasion started.

Yes, the fall of Beacon and subsequently Vale was within her grasp, all they needed was a little bit of patience before their plans came to fruition. But for now, she had to endure the Dance Party for a little while more.

To help with the illusion of their disguises, Cinder was dancing with her minion, Mercury. Just for a little while for people to see them and believe them to be normal students, before finally bailing out and return to their rooms.

That was the plan, had it not being for the sudden appearance of a man with golden hair who approached them and tapped Mercury on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, may I have the pleasure of a single dance." The man, who in Cinder's opinion, looked down right gorgeous asked to her silver haired "teammate".

"Sorry, but I don't think she's interested." The young boy shot him down as careful as he could, which wasn't much to begin with.

"I wasn't asking about her." The man said leaning in placing one hand softly on Mercury's cheek. For his part, the silver haired young man appalled by the sudden invasion of his personal space, could only step away in fright and slight disgust.

"What the f…?!"

"I guess that's a no then. Your loss." The gold haired man shrugged not bothered by the decline of his offer. "Would you care for a dance?" He asked but this time towards Cinder offering his hand.

"I'd love to." She accepted placing her hand unto his. Though not part of her plans, dancing with this handsome stranger was a pleasant surprise, or would've been if she was not trying to figure out who was this person.

He was an unknown. And she didn't like unknowns because they could endanger her plans if not analyzed properly. That's why she accepted his invitation. So she could inspect him up close and determine if he was a threat or just another name on the list of nobody's.

"May I ask the name of whom I'm sharing this dance with?" She asked innocently, which unknown to him was the start of her little "interrogation".

"They call me DIO."

' _DIO, huh?_ ' And with all capitals. It was a name that invoked both power and intrigue. Incredibly fitting for a man looks and physique such as his. Had Cinder been a weaker woman, she wouldn't have minded taking a man like him elsewhere to a secluded place for some "Stress Relief".

"I would be remiss if I do not ask for yours as well." The man known as DIO said as he continued to lead her in perfect rhythm with the music.

"Fall. Cinder Fall."She returned the favor.

"Beautiful name. I expected no less from a woman such as you."

Cinder slowly raised an eyebrow. Both the way he said it and the way he word it, it couldn't possibly be taken as a compliment. It was as if he was letting her know that she just filled with a check-mark one box of many in an arbitrary list of his expectations. It was completely rude, self-centered, and surprisingly a bit of a turn-on.

"Glad you approve."

"You're welcome."

If there was one thing she hated was men who believed themselves to be superior to others and looked down on her. No man who knew who she was dared to do what this man just did for fear of dying of immolation, yet this man not only dared but managed to intrigue her instead of inciting her fury.

"What brings a man like you to a school dance like this, if you don't mind me asking?" Cinder continued with her questioning. He honestly didn't look like a student, yet she couldn't picture him as a teacher either. Just who was he and what was he doing here?

"An acquaintance of mine conversed lengthy about this event and was quite adamant for me to attend. If I'm being honest I hoped to just make an appearance and then depart as soon as possible. That is…" He trailed off prompting Cinder to ask.

"That is…?"

"That is until you caught my eye." He confessed with a smile showcasing the white pearls that were his perfect teeth.

"And what was it about me that caught your eye in the first place?" She baited wanting to lower his guard so she could keep on prying for more information about him.

But before he could give her an answer, the song came to an end. Having come in the middle of a song when he asked her had cut their time short.

"Maybe I'll tell you over a nice drink outside." He offered signaling towards the door. "That is if you do not want to continue dancing with your previous partner." He made it sound like she was the one who would miss out instead of him if she chose to decline. Quite the nerve, of this man DIO.

"That would be pleasant." Even so, she accepted; maybe out of her desire to continue her questioning, or maybe because he was certainly titillating.

After a short stop at the refreshment table, both Cinder and DIO made their way outside and away from all the noise from the other students back in the make-shift ballroom. Both remained quiet for a little while, Cinder because she waited for him to speak first and break the sudden spell of silence which was probably his attempt to appear thoughtful.

The silence didn't last long, since DIO suddenly brought his cup up and said. "I propose a toast."

"What for?"

"Strangers." He announced with a small smirk much to her confusion.

"Strangers?"

"You see, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." He explained. "And I'm never opposed to forging a new friendship."

"Very well, then. For strangers!" Cinder raised her cup with a smirk. She secretly enjoyed the unintended meaning behind his choice of words.

"For stangers!" Both of their cups met and both drinks were sipped at the same time.

What followed was another spell of silence between the two as their eyes meet one another both trying to peer inside to see the soul of the other, yet this time it was Cinder who broke it first after several seconds.

"So, will you tell me?" She asked reminding him. "About what caught your eye?"

DIO chuckled as he took a step forward closing the distance between them which Cinder allowed for now. "Do you really want to know…?" he said with a teasing smirk.

"That's why we came outside in the first place." Cinder teased back. She too could play this game of back and forward and in the end she would come on top. And if he played his hand correctly, it would be on top of him.

"If you really want to know that badly I'll tell you…" He leaned down their faces barely an inch away from each other. "It was your smell."

That revelation kinda threw her out of the loop of a second, but she recovered before it could show on her face. "Really? What do I smell like?"

He placed a hand delicately on her face as he answered. "You smell like ash."

She sighed. If only he had said something different.

"And Dust-Rounds powder."

' _Then I wouldn't have to kill him_.' She mused as a dust-created glass like knife, she intended to stab him with, appeared on her hand. At least that was the plan.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

**"** **BOOOOM!"**

"I guess that's the signal." Yang said from her hiding spot several yards away, dressed in her huntress outfit and wearing Ember Celica, her Dual Shot Gauntlets, in each arm. Thank Oum for Rocket Propelled Lockers! Otherwise she would've been forced to fight on her new white dress she had carefully picked for this memorable night. Oh, and weaponless too, she suppose. Yet instead of jumping out to join the fray, she remained hidden looking out for possible accomplices of the infiltrator.

She wasn't worried about DIO, he looked like the sort of man that could handle everything that was thrown his way. She expected no less from her possible future husband or, if he was already spoken for, future one-night stand affair.

Besides, both Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch were nearby observing and looking for the perfect moment to strike.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

"Surrender and I may show mercy." DIO proclaim looking at Cinder who looked unaffected by the explosion caused by fire type dust.

"I may have been more inclined to believe you if you hadn't been lying to me this past few minutes." Cinder quipped back looking calm and collected, yet inside her mind she was running several scenarios as to what to do now without ruining her carefully laid plan. "Is DIO even a real name?"

"Believe me, I wished I had any other choice." It didn't sit well to use the image of a man that caused so much grief to his fellow companions and whose underlings caused Iggy's death. Seriously, after he was done with this he would never make The Fool take the form of DIO ever again.

"I guess it doesn't matter, since you'll be dead soon enough." Cinder was no fool, even if he had no reinforcements as back-up, that dust explosion would alert the students and the staff of their fight. The only sensible option was to escape while she still could, yet before she did she wanted to personally kill the man who dare interfere with her plans. "90 seconds is all the time I can spare for you."

"As you wish." He was accustomed to Stand Battles and those could be won in less than that. "Do not say I didn't warn you, Cinder."

With those sealing words the fight began. Although one couldn't exactly call it that. Battles between people trained as Huntsmen and Huntresses, were highly maneuvered and spectacular displays of physical technique and gunplay. High speed battles where metal clashed against metal, fists smashed flesh, bullets exploded upon contact and semblances and dust gave people unnatural and magic-like abilities.

It was a sight to behold.

But there lied its biggest flaw.

Hunters while physically superior to Stand Users, their battles lacked the brutality of Stand battles and the mental power behind them.

It wasn't to say that Hunter battles were mindless, far from it, but it always came down to whoever was the faster, stronger or had the better weapon or semblance or the most experience, not to mention most only fought to incapacitate or knock out an enemy. While with Stand Battles it came down to whoever could outsmart the opponent, no matter how powerful or effective your stand might be, and in every battle death was a stark reality.

That is why Cinder rushed towards him. She had the intention to kill sure, but she was expecting a straight forward battle, and even if both had aces up their sleeves, she was convinced there was going to be a clash of weapons, albeit a short one since she was sure of her own superior skills in combat. That is why she never noticed the sudden change on the soil she was going to step in. That instead of solid ground it became loose and unstable, almost liquid like.

That is why her face twisted in shock when her feet unexpectedly sunk into the liquefied ground. Had it not being for her Aura, the sudden change of momentum would've caused her to break several bones of her now trapped appendage. But Aura could only protect so much as the ground crawled up her leg and while it did so it solidified, slowly crushing said appendage it was enveloping.

Out of desperation and shock, Cinder used her fire powers to blast the offending attack away from her leg, but the moment she did so, it sparked an explosion that enveloped her completely.

"Sand, infused with small crystals of Fire Dust. Highly volatile." DIO relayed as the smoke caused by the explosion dissipated to reveal Cinder looking far more pissed and hurt than before. Luckily for her, the leg was still attached to her and thanks to her aura it only received severe burn marks instead of being blown off.

Either way she will run no more for the foreseeable future.

 **"** **YOU F***!"** She screeched, venom dripping from her voice. It seemed that the horrifying amounts of pain she was in caused her to break off of her usual calm demeanor.

"CINDER!" Twin cries called out for said woman as two other combatants, the silver haired young man from before and a dark skinned girl with green hair entered the fray to attack DIO and help their leader.

"You'll pay for that you f*****!" Mercury shouted as he sent a powerful kick towards the gold haired man who dared attack Cinder. While he kicked this guy's ass, his companion Emerald could help up Cinder and cast an illusion with her semblance that will allow them to escape.

At least that was the plan.

Mercury never expected to be blindsided by Yang's powerful fist that sent him flying away.

"Touch a single hair of his precious head and I'll break your leg!" The blond threaten as she continued her assault on Mercury.

Emerald for her part was attacked by another blond but this one was none other than Glynda Goodwitch with her fearsome riding crop. "I believe you have much to answer for, it would be wise to surrender."

Cinder watched desperately as her subordinates were engaging in combat, which they will surely not win, not with a powerful Huntress like Goodwitch on the opposition. And even if Emerald and Mercury were to win, the other faculty members of Beacon will surely put a stop to them.

' _This wasn't supposed to happen_.' She thought anguish. All her plans, her preparations, ruined! And who was the man responsible of her current suffering state?

"You should've surrendered when you had the chance."

It was that damned man!

She cursed him! Curse him all the way to hell!

Cinder summoned her glass bow and several dust arrows, ready to blow him to kingdom come!

" **DIOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!** "

"That's not my name."

" **DIE!** "

The arrows flew towards him and instead of dodging or even blocking, he just stood there and took the arrows to the chest, which exploded upon impact in a big ball of fire!

With heavy pants Cinder waited for the dust cloud to clear to see the effectiveness of her attack, and when it did, there were no signs or traces of that insufferable man which clued her in that something was going on.

Before she had any time to catch her breath, let alone reflect on what just happened. Her instincts detected an attack coming from behind, and lo and behold the moment she turned around she came face to face with a horrible creature which she had no words to describe it with, pouncing right at her.

With no time to think, Cinder extended her arms and used her fire powers to immolate the creature and to her surprise the creature exploded, not in the expended blood and gore, but in Sand. And from the sand a small creature appeared and flew right at her.

With a mighty roar Iggy bit Cinder the same way he had done to that bird bastard, Pet Shop.

But instead of crushing a beak, he tore off a nose.

He couldn't begin to imagine how painful that must have felt, but the shrill scream Cinder unleashed indicated that it had hurt. A LOT.

" **I told you to surrender**." Iggy said once more after he spit the bloody protuberance on the floor. What he did may have been callous and out-of-line, but he was done pulling his punches. After dying and having to fight dozens upon dozens of grimm to survive, he learned that in life-or-death combat compassion was over-rated.

Either for the pain she was experiencing or the shock of hearing a dog talk. Cinder finally surrendered into unconsciousness.

Just in time as Yang and Goodwitch finished off and capture their respective opponents.

"Now that was quite the work out." Yang said as she dragged the unconscious Mercury through the floor with no regards for his clothes or well-being. "Hey, where is my future husb- I mean, DIO?" She looked around trying to catch a glimpse of his beautiful figure, while ignoring Iggy.

"I must say that was impressive display worthy of a Hunter." Ozpin cut in as he walked towards them with his ever present cup of coffee.

"Thanks" Yang said accepting the compliments, although she had to wonder; was he seriously drinking coffee while he watched them fight? If she was correct in her assumption then that meant the headmaster had some serious issues with the beverage.

"You performed as excellent as ever, Miss Xiao Long. But I was referring to DIO, or should I say, Iggy?" He said looking at the Boston Terrier with keen eyes, much like he had done so when he had interrogated Jaune and Pyrrha about the events of the initiation.

"Wait! You can't be serious!" Yang almost shouted. "You can't possibly mean that DIO was Iggy this whole time!"

"I'm afraid that's the case, yes." Ozpin said not taking his eyes away from Iggy, as Yang too turned to look at the dog with an ever-changing arrange of expressions: shock, fear, disappointment, disgust and increasing anger.

' _Great, just great_.' Iggy thought sarcastically while cursing his decisions from the last hour.

Not only did he reveal himself to Ozpin who would be all over him wanting to examine him, he also had to deal with a heartbroken Yang whom had been smitten with his Stand with the form of DIO, and now that he had crushed her crush, she had even more reasons to hate his guts.

' _These three better had been trying to destroy the city; otherwise I screwed myself over nothing_.'

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so in order to write this, I saw the entirety of the RWBY series… That was a terrible idea. Because as of now, I added another name to the list of series I'm waiting for to start their new season. Damn.
> 
> Also, someone wrote asking me wanting to see more of Young Justice and it got me thinking that yes, I might revisit some of the stories I already wrote about. But that would be in the future.
> 
> Again, this was two separate chapters now combined. 
> 
> You have no idea how many times I had to re-write this chapter and it still didn't end up as I wanted it to be. I can't stand to even look at it. At least for now.


	5. Legend of Korra part 1

It has been decades after Avatar Aang and his friends heroically ended the Hundred Year War. He alongside Firelord Zuko transformed the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations, a society where benders and non-benders from all over the world could live and thrive together in peace and harmony. They named the capital of this great land "Republic City".

Yet over time, what once was an ideal dream slowly turned sour and the great Republic City became a place far different from what Avatar Aang had envisioned. Political unrest was prominent and organized crime proliferated through the several sectors of the city. And those who were benders, people born with the ability to manipulate one of the four elements: Earth, Fire, Air or Water; used their natural gifts to lord over those who couldn't defend themselves, creating an anti-bender sentiment all over the place.

In fact a social movement was starting to gain momentum. A group of calling themselves Equalists, were rallying against all benders, not only those who use their powers for crime. In all honesty, the whole thing was a powder keg ready to explode.

Yes, that was life in the big city: Organized crime, social unrest, people that could bend the elements and people that hated them for it.

And off all the places you could go in Republic city, the commercial district was a hotspot for it all.

Because of all the shops, restaurants, theaters and retail stores, this part of town brought hundreds even thousands of people every day; so it wasn't a surprise that it also highly fought place for all the rival triads to possess, so crime was nothing out of the ordinary.

Another thing not out of the ordinary was that the place attracted their fair share of freaks and weirdoes too. They were always causing some sort of commotion and disturbed the public peace or they scared off potential clients.

So the people who lived or own a business in this part of town were accustomed to very strange and odd sights. But nothing could've prepared them for the events that started over a year ago.

Nobody knew exactly how or when it started, since people were too preoccupied with their own problems to really take notice, but the animals that often creep and roam the place were acting in weird ways. They were several reports of people hearing weird noises at night: from animals howling/chirping/hissing and what sounded like animals fighting each other. But other than disturbing people's sleep, it went largely ignored.

People only took noticed of these changes when a certain incident happened with a Meat vendor. One day the owner of the meat shop chased a stray dog away from his store swinging a broom at the animal. Then as it ran away, the poor creature met an unfortunate fate thanks to a Satomobile that was passing by at that very moment.

A tragedy to be sure, but what sent chills down to people's back was when every other creature who witnessed it turn silent. No barks, no hisses, no caws, no nothing. All other animals just stared at their fellow fallen creature, as if they were having a moment of silence for it.

The day after the accident, the meat vendor's store was vandalized, not by the triads or trouble making rapscallions but by wild beasts. Although tamed compared to a triad raid, it was disconcerting how the outside of the store had been trashed. Claw marks were everywhere there was wood, windows had been cracked in dozens of different spots in the shape of beaks, and garbage was littered all over the front and all kinds of animal droppings stink up the place.

Of course the police was called, thinking this was the act of some troublemakers, but the police found no clues that pointed to anyone specifically so the case was shelved. And after the place finally managed to clean up the mess, the store was hit again in the same way.

This continued for several weeks, with the police not being able to help any, until the owner shut down the store and left after selling the place. When the new owner showed up and opened a music store, the place was left alone and there were no other attacks.

That would've been the end of that story had it not being for some more uncanny happenings days later.

A well know bunch of troubling kids came running down the street screaming bloody murder about being attacked by a monster. Of course because of their reputation, everyone around them didn't believe a word coming out of their mouths. That is until an old spoke up claiming that he had seen the monster appear and chase the kids around, only after they had being picking on a stray ferret.

When asked to describe the monster, the old man just said: "It was a creature unlike any other. It was half-beast half Satomobile."

The very few that didn't dismiss the tale as a lies from devious kids or ramblings from a senile old fart, kept a look out for said monster but none ever saw or heard anything, and after a few weeks it was but a memory.

But if one's an incident and two's a coincidence, then a third incident indicated a pattern. And said third time came when the members of a growing Triad appeared to "negotiate and collect" protection money from the many establishments of the district. These men were all benders who used their powers to control one of the four elements to exhort money from the defenseless business owners.

Most defenseless of all was the old lady owner of the textile shop. Her husband had died years ago from a common illness and her only son had left to pursue his dreams away from the shop; and the only company she kept were those of cats that came to her store because she left milk and treats to them.

So as you can imagine, there was no one to stand up for her when the triad members came to collect.

With business going slow, the old lady did not have enough money to pay her "protection fee" and the members of the triad decided to make an example of her and trashed her store and stole some of her wares, but before leaving they left with a terrible threat.

"If next month's fee isn't paid in time then this store will burn with you inside."

It was a terrible sight and the owners of the neighboring stores and business just turned their heads and look to the other side. Knowing that they couldn't do anything or they would end up the same as the old lady.

But the next day, something bizarre happened.

The old lady was visited by a man covered head to toe with robes and a hood that obscured his features. The man delivered her a bag with the returned money she had paid to the triad, plus more covering for the stolen wares and the damage to her store. When the old lady asked who he was and why he had given her money, he said:

"You've always shown kindness to the ignored and the unwanted: the animals from the street. As long as your heart remains kind to them, your benevolence will never go unrewarded, one way or another."

After that the man vanished from thin air as if he was blown away by the wind, never to be seen again. But on that same day of the man's disappearance, the old lady and the neighboring business owners heard the news that the triad members that had exhorted their money the day before were found beaten up with their clothes torn to shreds as if they had being mauled by a large ferocious animal. Yet the strangest thing of all was that they were heard shouting in fright about a monster: a monster half beast half Satomobile.

And that was the final nail that confirmed the pattern.

The following days all around the markets and shops, people commented and discussed about the monster and from the stories and rumors circling about, a legend was slowly formed.

Story went that the monster was in fact the phantom of the dog that tragically died after being run over, explaining why he was often described as half Satomobile, seeking revenge for its untimely and tragic death. Others believe that the monster was in fact an ancient animal spirit of the land that has lived long before Republic city was founded and that its mixed appearance with a Satomobile was a symbol of how urban progress was taking over and corrupting the nature of the land.

Whatever the case may be, people rationalized that the monster only went after those who abused animals and looked after the people who respected and look after the critters. And so, the business owners started to leave offerings outside their shops and homes, to appease the spirit. And those who fully committed found good fortune and were avenged and remunerated after the triads came to exhort money or steal merchandize from them.

But as with other legends, there were those who opposed.

The skeptics didn't believe in the tale of the spirit, claimed the whole thing to be a myth born out of the over-exaggeration of tales told by the overactive imaginations of children and old people. In fact, the triads and the police alike believed all of this to be a ruse by a vigilante.

Some bender was putting on smokes and mirrors to create an illusion I which to hide in his identity and actions. After investigating the places which the supposed monster appeared and attacked the triads, they found out traces of earth manipulation and so the Republic City Police Department figured that the one responsible was an Earthbender, or better said, a master Sandbender.

Sandbending, as with Metalbending, was an alternative style of EarthBending, used mostly by the tribes that lived in the Si Wong Dessert, although any Earthbender could Sandbend, only a talented and well trained one could use Sand the way this vigilante did.

Although for different reasons, the Police and the Triads were on the lookout for the Sandbending Vigilante. But no matter how long it passed it seemed that no side could catch a glimpse of the man, making a fool out of both Republic City's finest and crooks.

Unbeknownst to both believers and skeptics, the truth of the matter was that they were both right and wrong at the same time.

The one behind the legend wasn't a Sandbender but could control Sand; it wasn't a bender but a Stand User; and it wasn't a spirit nor a man, but a dog. A dog that found itself in an unknown land filled with unknown people and concepts like: bending, spirits or the Avatar. But the place where he found itself was felt nothing short of familiar. It once had tried to become the top dog among the animals of a city very much like Republic City but said ambition was put on halt in order to send him into an unwanted mission to a faraway place to battle an unknown enemy.

A mission in which the dog had died; murdered by a servant of the enemy he was tasked to help defeat.

Now the dog found itself with a new chance at life in a new city that was very much the one he lived in before his ambition was put in hold for the mission, so it figured: _'Why not start where I left off last time?'_

So the dog began anew its quest to become the Top Dog of the City.

Though new in town and against animals and creatures unknown to him, the dog had no trouble defeating the leaders of different groups, clans and flocks and have them follow his orders thanks to the dog's ability to control and manipulate dirt and sand of all kind, much like an expert Earthbender.

Yet unlike last time it tried, the dog decided to be smart about it. Never bringing attention to itself nor put the humans against him. In fact, the dog decided to make allies of some of them, but only those that respected him and his followers.

In exchange of food and shelter, the dog and its followers respected the homes and businesses of their allies and look after them to ensure the symbiotic relationship they established continued. And thanks to the legend of the animal spirit and the Sandbender vigilante, the dog managed to expand his reach farther and farther each day without much interruption or intervention from humans.

Though progress was slow he was making steady progress of finally accomplish his dream of becoming the Top Dog in all of the streets of Republic City.

Long Live Republic City's Invisible King of the Streets.

Long Live Iggy.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

* * *

 

Never in all her life did Avatar Korra imagine she would end up in a place like this. Inside an interrogation room surrounded by metal walls inside the Republic City Police HQ being treated as a common criminal. She was the Avatar for spirits sake! They should've congratulated her for stopping those thugs, not arrest and cuff her to a table, while a stern looking woman read out-loud all the charges against her.

"Multiple counts of destruction of private and city property... not to mention evading arrest. You're in a whole mess of trouble young lady."

"But there were some thugs threatening a helpless shop keeper and I had to..." Korra tried to explain, but the policewoman wouldn't hear any of it.

"Can it! You should have called the police and stayed out of the way."

"But I couldn't just sit by and do nothing. It's my duty to help people. See, I'm the Avatar." That was what she had been taught all her life, and although she found now pleasure in pulling up her title, the young Water Tribal had to defend herself.

"Oh I am well aware of who you are. And your Avatar title might impress some people, but not me." The policewoman said clearly unimpressed by it, making Korra wonder what this lady's deal was.

"Alright, fine. Then I want to talk to whoever's in charge." Korra changed disposition from cowed to determined. If this lady wanted to act tough then she could too.

"You're talking to her." She announced unamused as she took her seat on the other side if the metal table, looking at the young girl directly in the eye. "I'm Chief Beifong."

"Wait, Beifong. Lin Beifong? You're Toph's daughter!" Korra made the connection instantly.

"What of it?"

"Then why are you treating me like a criminal? Avatar Aang and your mother were friends, they saved the world together." All of Avatar Aang's friends and their families had always being friendly with her, heck some were like family! So why was Lin different?

"That's ancient history... and it's got diddle squat to do with the mess you're in right now. You can't just waltz in here and dole out justice like you own the place!" Lin said getting rather upset at the end. "The last thing we need is another vigilante on the streets causing ruckus!"

"Wait, other vigilante?" Korra titled her head in curiosity. Did that meant there was someone out there that did what she did on regular basis without caring what the police had to say. "Who is he?"If how she had being treated by the RCPD for helping others was any indication, then this vigilante was some sort of unsung hero.

"Forget about him! You better start thinking about yourself." Korra could see regret on Lin's eyes for bringing up the vigilante and was trying to steer away from the subject. But this only kindled the Avatar's curiosity for the guy even more.

But before Korra could probe more info from Lin, a section of the metal wall opened up and a guard spoke through it. "Chief, Councilman Tenzin is here."

"Let him in." Lin sighed, although nobody could tell if it was out of relief or annoyance.

Although Tenzin came to her rescue, all what Korra could think of was about this vigilante that was out on the streets of Republic City.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

"It may not be much, but you and your family can use this as a shelter." Iggy said as he used his stand ability to carve a decent sized hole on the side of a thick rock wall. Though modest, the newly made shelter was away from any human settlements where it could cause trouble.

"You are as generous as you are powerful, oh mighty King." A ferret bowed its head towards the boston terrier with the upmost respect and appreciation he could muster. "My family and I will always be on your debt and my children and the children of their children will praise your name, Lord Iggy."

"Your appreciation is noted. My only request for you is for you to care for your family and to follow my rules: look after your fellow brethren, always lay a helping paw, tail, or beak, and respect the property of the humans who leave offerings for us."

"I will, my lord. I will!" The ferret bowed his head again and again.

"Now I'll take my leave while you and your family settle in."

"Yes, my lord!" The ferret bowed one last time and declared. "Long live King Iggy, may your rule last generations."

"Thank you."And with that, the King left.

As he walked away, Iggy couldn't help but feel good about the whole thing. Not because of the titles and the bowing, but for the sheer appreciation for his actions. The love in the eyes of his subjects towards him made him feel more like a king than any title alone could provide.

'Maybe things would've turned different if back on New York, my followers had a bit of love for me.'

Iggy still remembered the first time he had tried to become the Top Dog in the Streets of New York. He had battled and conquered against all opposition, making his enemies fear him and his power. Yet by doing so, everyone he ruled over only followed him because of fear, instead of respect or admiration.

He didn't knew it back then, but the foundations of his rule were weak, only to last until the moment his power and the fear he had over his followers faltered. That was why when Abdul and Joestar came looking for him to take Iggy away for messing around with humans for so long, nobody step up to help him.

Iggy was sure no one missed him or shed a tear either.

But things were different now.

Although he hated to admit it, Iggy was surprised by the absolute devotion the enemies of the Crusaders had for DIO. How they all fought and lay down their lives for him. They loved him, and Iggy had been jealous because no one would ever do the same for him.

Until now.

Iggy not only managed to become Top Dog, but through his actions and perseverance he won the love and admiration he long had been seeking for. Though it was hard work, Iggy knew it was worth it when he saw the love in everyone's eyes.

Iggy finally knew what truly meant to Stand Proud.

"My King!" A "voice" snapped Iggy from his thoughts. "I have urgent news." The voice belonged to a black cat, one of his trusted lieutenants, Stray Kats. "The Avatar is confirmed to be in Republic City right now."

"The Avatar, huh?" Iggy said intrigued looking up to the sky above.

After coming to this world, Iggy discovered so many interesting things on this new world he now resided in. But no amount of weird mixed-matched animals hybrids could compared to his surprise when he found out about bending and the Avatar itself.

The Avatar. The only living being capable of bending the Four Elements: Earth, Fire, Air and Water; and all of their alternative styles. The one charge of keeping balance among the four nations of the world, as well as between mankind and spirits.

And now that same person was in Iggy's city.

"Interesting…"

"My lord?"

"Keep an eye on the Avatar." Iggy declared turning towards the black cat. "Send out the lizard crows and keep me informed of the Avatar's every move."

"Yes my lord." Stray bowed before she leaped away to carry on her liege's orders.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

Outside of the City Hall a large crowd cheered for the arrival of Avatar Korra to their city. They all gathered around waiting to hear about her and her plans for the city itself. At the front, several reporters and photographers snapped shots of the most talked about person in Republic City at the moment.

While this was going on, Korra was dreading to talk in front of such a large crowd of people that will hang on every word that came from her mouth. She only hoped she didn't end up embarrassing herself.

"Hello, I'm Korra. Your new Avatar." She finally spoke unto the five microphones outfitted on the podium she was standing at. That was the best place to start right? And before she could even say anything else, the reporters jumped in with several questions.

"Does this mean you've moved to Republic City?"

"Were you trying to send a message to the Triads yesterday?"

"Will you be fighting crime or the anti bending revolution or both?"

"Will you be working with Chief Beifong and the police?"

"Uh, yes, I am definitely here to stay, but honestly, I don't exactly have a plan yet. See I'm still in training..." Caught slightly by surprise, Korra struggled for words to continue on. "but... look, all I know is Avatar Aang meant for this city to be the center of peace and balance in the world, and I believe we can make his dream a reality. I look forward to serving you! I am so happy to be here. Thank you Republic City!"

At her declaration the crowd cheered even louder and even more questions came her way. Trying to help her, Tenzin, city councilman and son of the previous Avatar stepped forward to address the crowd.

"Alright, that's all the questions the Av—"

"What's your plan for the Sandbending Vigilante!" A question came, sounding above all others and the crowd went silent for a moment waiting anxiously for the Avatar's response.

"I do not know." Korra said pushing Tenzin away so she could answer this last question. "I heard many rumors about it. That he is a vigilante delivering unorthodox justice on his own, while others claim that he is a spirit that attacks those who anger it." Either case, both excited her and made her anxious. "Man or Spirit, I'm sure I will deal with him, one way or another."

And that as a closing statement Korra left the podium while reporters kept on launching question after question. _'Whatever or whoever you are, I can't wait to meet eye to eye.'_

Unknown to her and everyone person around, a tanned skin figure dressed in a heavy overcoat with elbow-long sleeves, sporting a headband and over his black haired was tied upwards in a very unusual style, blended in with the crowd, despite having a dog hanging from his shoulders.

"I too look forward to our meeting Avatar Korra." The man said with a smile while he and the dog watch her walk away.

**[ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ] [ÔÔÔ]**

 


End file.
